SUBSTITUTION OF SOYBEAN BY PIGEON PEA MEA L IN BROILER FEED

The objective of this work was to evaluate the nutritive value of pige on pea meal (PPM) with methionine substituting soybean meal (SM) in di ets for 1-28 day-old broiler chicks. The experimental design was that of random blocks, in a 3 x 3 factorial scheme with three substitution levels - 15, 30 and 45% - and three methionine supplementation levels in relation to the requirements, that is: 100, 66 and 33%, with four r epetitions. It was found that PPM treated for 20 minutes at 100 degree s C substituted up to 30% of the SM, even without methionine supplemen tation, in relation to liveweight (p<0.01), to food conversion and to the efficiency of utilization of metabolizable energy and to protein ( p<0.05). At the 66% level of methionine supplementation, the same resu lts as for these parameters were obtained at all of the levels of subs titution of SM by PPM. The 30% or 45% substitution of SM protein by th at of PPM affected (p<0.01) the efficiency of methionine utilization. The sulphur amino acid utilization efficiency was affected (p<0.01) be ginning at 66% methionine supplementation in the diets.