REQUIREMENT OF YOUNG BROILER CHICKS FOR GLYCINE PLUS SERINE

Two growth trails were performed to study the requirement for glycine in young broiler chicks. In addition it was studied whether or not glu tamic acid will become limiting by reducing the protein level to appro ximately 19%. Two basal diets with a normal and a low content of prote in were used. The low protein diet was used for testing the effect of graded dietary levels of glycine and/or glutamic acid. Supplementation of the low protein diet with essential amino acids improved weight ga in and feed conversion efficiency significantly, but was still inferio r to the diet containing a normal protein level. However this negative effect could be overcome completely when the low protein diet, in add ition to essential amino acids, also was supplemented with glycine. Th e dietary requirement for glycine + serine in obtaining maximum perfor mance was estimated to be between 1.8 to 1.9%. No clear indications we re achieved that glutamic acid will become limiting by reducing the pr otein in diets for young broiler chicks to approximately 19%.