The Value of Supplemental Methionine in Practical Chick Starter and Broiler Rations

THE ever-increasing economic pressure on protein supplements used for poultry feeds is resulting in the use of large quantities of cereal protein concentrates and particularly soybean oil meal. This, together with the recent discoveries that vitamin B12 (Ott, Rickes and Wood, 1948; and Briggs, Hill and Giles, 1950) and antibiotics (Stokstad and Jukes, 1950) influence chick growth, and that the quality of the diet influences the growth response obtained from several antibiotics (Matterson, Singsen, Decker and Kozeff, 1951), influenced the authors of this paper to re-examine the value of supplemental methionine in practical type chick starter and broiler rations, composed mainly of corn as a source of carbohydrates and soybean oil meal as a source of protein. Early literature on the value of soybean oil meal protein for growth has been reviewed by Hayward and Hafner (1941). These same authors (1941) carried out parallel experiments with rats and chicks to …