Digestible tryptophan:digestible lysine ratio in diets for laying hens from 24 to 40 weeks of age

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the ideal digestible tryptophan:digestible lysine ratio in diets for laying hens from 24 to 40 weeks of age. Two hundred and forty Hy-Line W-36 laying hens at 24 weeks of age were distributed in a completely randomized design, with five treatments, eight replicates and six birds per experimental unit. The digestible tryptophan levels in the experimental diets were 1.57; 1.68; 1.79; 1.90 and 2.01 g/kg, providing ratios of digestible tryptophan:digestible lysine of 0.215; 0.230; 0.245; 0.260 and 0.275. The increase in the levels of digestible tryptophan in the diet linearly improved the feed intake, digestible tryptophan intake, digestible lysine intake, egg production, egg mass, feed conversion per egg mass and utilization efficiency of digestible lysine for eggs mass. There were quadratic effects from the digestible tryptophan levels on egg weight. For the efficiency of utilization of digestible lysine for egg mass, there was better adjustment of the data to the LRP model. The level of digestible tryptophan in the diet from which the plateau occurred was 0.184%. This level corresponded to the intake of 142 mg/bird/day of digestible tryptophan and digestible tryptophan:digestible lysine ratio of 0.252. The ideal digestible tryptophan:digestible lysine ratio recommended in diets for laying hens from 24 to 40 weeks of age is 0.252 (25.2%).