Chick Growth Response to Different Levels of Methionine and Protein Supplements Added to a Low Methionine Diet

EXPERIMENTAL feeding trials have been conducted with the addition of methionine and protein supplements to a basal ration containing ground peas and meat meal as the chief sources of protein. Past feeding experiments by Peterson et al. (1944) and Bolin et al. (1946) have shown that the addition of dl-methionine and certain protein supplements to this type of basal ration increased the growth response and protein efficiency. There was a marked difference between the different protein supplements in their ability to increase the rate of gain over that made on the basal ration. This difference in rate of gain for the different protein supplements may have been due to the amount of methionine in the protein. The objective of these feeding experiments was to set up a standard dl-methionine growth rate curve by feeding individual lots of chicks in the same feeding trials different levels of dl-methionine. The growth rate . . .