Amino Acid Supplementation of Mandioca Meal Chick Diets

INTRODUCTION WHEN mandioca meal is the major carbohydrate source in chick diets, growth and efficiency are diminished when compared to conventional rations which are isonitrogenous and isocaloric. Enriquez and Ross (1967) largely overcame the depressing effects noted with high cassava rations by supplementing the diet with 0.15% methionine. In earlier studies conducted by Olson et al. (1969) at this station, there was some indication that supplementing the chick diet containing 45% mandioca meal with 0.10% methionine and 0.10% leucine produced a response. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of supplemented methionine or leucine either singly or in combination to chick diets containing 45 % mandioca meal.2 MATERIALS AND METHODS A composite sample from the various lots of mandioca meal was taken and analyzed for amino acids with an amino acid analyzer by the procedure of Moore et al. (1958), with the exception of histidine, cystine, and…