• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.33 no.5
• /
• pp.679-695
• /
• 2020

Evaluating amino acid requirements, specifically threonine requirements, in horses will enable better feed formulation and result in economic production, improved animal health, and reduced environmental pollution. However, the current knowledge of protein and amino acid requirements in horses is still limited. Because horses have a unique digestive system and consume a variety of feed ingredients, their protein digestibility may be affected than other species by different feed composition, and thus amino acid requirements are susceptible to vary between situations. Therefore, a careful evaluation of amino acid requirements with a proper method is needed for various conditions. This review will also provide comprehensive information that needs to be considered when designing an amino acid requirement study in horses.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.12 no.8
• /
• pp.1298-1309
• /
• 1999

The nutritional value of protein varies between feedstuffs. It is possible to feed animals using crystalline amino acids as a sole nitrogen source, but in practice only some limiting amino acids are added to the diet. In order to use feedstuffs efficiently, it is important to determine exact amino acid requirements. Reported values differ widely because the requirements are affected by various factors. In this report, therefore, the factors affecting amino acid requirements are reviewed as follows: 1) availability of dietary amino acids, conversion factors of nitrogen to protein, interaction of amino acids, and strain, sex and age of animals; 2) amino acid requirements for maximum performance and maintenance, usefulness of non-essential amino acids; 3) plasma amino acid concentration as a parameter to determine amino acid requirements; and 4) nitrogen excretion to reduce environmental pollution. These factors should be considered, it is to improve the dietary efficiency, which is to reduce excess nitrogen excretion for environmental pollution.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.22 no.8
• /
• pp.1186-1194
• /
• 2009

The objective of this study was to estimate the optimum dietary essential amino acid pattern for male Taiwan country chicks. A series of experiments was conducted with chicks, 14 d of age, for 2 wks. A basal synthetic diet was established using a dose response test for all essential amino acids referring to the broiler requirements recommended by NRC (1994). Twelve chicks were sacrificed at the beginning to provide initial body nitrogen data, and every group of six birds received the basal diet or a diet with a deficiency in a single essential amino acid in twenty one treatments by intubation according to their daily metabolic body weight (MBW). Deposited body nitrogen was determined using comparative slaughtering. According to the daily intake from the limiting amino acid per unit of MBW and the body nitrogen accretion rates for every two deficient groups with the same limiting amino acid but at different levels, a corresponding straight line was computed for each essential amino acid to intersect with a horizontal line made by the body nitrogen accretion rate of the control group. The x coordinate of the intersection represented the daily requirement for growth plus maintenance based on MBW corresponding to the essential amino acid. The amino acid ratios can be considered as the optimum pattern of dietary essential amino acids. The results, expressed with respect to lysine = 100, were arginine 105, methionine 81, histidine 34, tryptophan 18, leucine 103, phenylalanine 135, isoleucine 69, threonine 65 and valine 79. This pattern could be utilized to compute the dietary requirements (g/kg feed) for all essential amino acids by multiplying by the requirement of a single essential amino acid cited from the literature.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.16 no.12
• /
• pp.1782-1788
• /
• 2003

A mathematical model has been constructed to estimate the amino acid requirements for growing Taihe silky fowls in early stage. A requirement was taken as the sum of the needs for maintenance, for gain in carcass weight without feathers, and for the feathers. The maintenance requirement was considered to be the sum of the needs for replacing skin and intestinal losses and for the obligatory creatinine excretion in the urine. A comparative slaughter trial and nitrogen balance trials with growing and adult Taihe silky fowls, respectively, were conducted to estimate the parameters in the model. The amino acid requirements were then calculated with the constructed models. The results showed as following: the replacement needs for skin nitrogen loss was determined at 213.41 mg/d for adult male fowls (body weight 1.60 kg); creatinine excretion in these birds was 4.04 mg/d. when fed an nitrogen-free diets, the adult male fowls with body weight 1.60 kg excreted a total of 246.10 mg/d endogenous nitrogen. The net protein requirement for maintenance was estimated at $11.24mg/w_g{^{0.75}}/d$Per gram of body weight gain contained 27.18 mg carcass nitrogen for growing birds in early stage, but feathers nitrogen in per gram of body weight gain increased with age. The amino acid requirements for growing Taihe silky fowls were slightly higher than for starting and growing pullets, but lower than that of broiler chicks. The amino acid requirements patterns changed with weeks of age.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.94-100
• /
• 1981

For the chemical assessment of soybean sprouts as a protein food, the changes of amino acid compositions were investigated in soybean as well as both in cotyledon and axis at various growing stages. The total amino acid content per soybean sprout was not changed until 2 days, and thereafter decreased. In cotyledon it is decreased but increased in axis. The ratio of essential amino acid to total amino acids decreased rapidly after 4 days, especially in axis. Aspartic acid increased considerably while glutamic acid decreased. The assessment of soybean sprout with chemical score, A/E and A/T, methods showed that the values were low and that there was no consistency among two methods for sprout products. The limiting amino acid was methionine. Both chemical scores by FAO reference protein and requirement pattern showed similar decreasing order of 2 day-sprout>soybean>4 day-sprout>8 day-sprout>6 day-sprout, while both essential amino acid index and requirement index showed 2 day-sprout>soybeans>4 day-sprout> 6 day-sprout>8 day-sprout.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.42 no.1
• /
• pp.87-100
• /
• 2015

It is well known that dietary protein affects the growth performance and carcass composition of poultry. Over the last several decades, numerous studies have been carried out to investigate to optimize the level of dietary protein since the protein is an important and expensive constituent in poultry feed. It is generally accepted that dietary protein should represent a balance of amino acids supporting the requirements for growth and maintenance of birds. A protein with balanced essential amino acids that matches a bird's requirement and sufficient non-essential amino acid nitrogen to enable the synthesis of all of the non-essential amino acids, is referred to as an 'ideal protein'. Feeding of excess protein or amino acids may result in an amount of nitrogen emission. Most common method to reduce nitrogen emission is using diet formulation which has lower dietary crude protein level and higher concentration of amino acid supplements. However, there are conflicting reports whether low protein diets supplemented with synthetic amino acids can obtain the growth performance equal to high protein diets. Excessive nitrogen excretion caused by amino acid imbalance also may influence the environment of poultry house due to ammonia production from uric acid. These environmental conditions may increase the incidence of skin problem or respiratory diseases of chickens. Various strategies based on comprehensive understanding should be tested to optimize nitrogen utilization and reduce nitrogen emission while maintaining the performance in poultry production.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.25 no.8
• /
• pp.1138-1144
• /
• 2012

This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the dipeptide form of phenylalanine as a new source of amino acid in terms of growth performance and whole-body amino acid composition in comparison to the free form for red seabream (Pagrus major). Fish ($1.46{\pm}0.001g$) were fed four isonitrogenous and isocaloric experimental diets containing 0.7 or 1.4% phenylalanine either in free or dipeptide form. A feeding trial was carried out in three replicates and the fish were fed to apparent satiation for six weeks. At the end of the feeding trial, feed intake of fish was influenced by both phenylalanine form and level and significantly higher values were obtained at an inclusion level of 0.7% and by the use of dipeptide form. However, the other growth parameters did not significantly differ among treatments. Whole-body amino acid compositions revealed no significant changes in concentrations of both essential and non-essential amino acids regardless of the increase in phenylalanine levels or the use of its different forms. The finding in this study indicates that juvenile red seabream can utilize dipeptide phenylalanine as efficiently as free form without any undesirable effects on growth performance or whole-body amino acid composition.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.59-65
• /
• 2014

There is currently no reference for intake of lysine for Chinese people; therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the lysine requirement of Chinese young male adults on a habitual Chinese mixed diet based on the modified indicator amino acid oxidation method. Seven young men with a mean age of $23.7{\pm}2.2$ years that were healthy based on questionnaire, physical examinations and screening tests were evaluated. Subjects were evaluated over five consecutive 7 day periods, during which time they were administered decreasing amounts of lysine via the diet (65, 55, 45, 35, $25mg{\cdot}kg^{-1}{\cdot}d^{-1}$). Subjects were allowed to adapt from day 1 to 6 and the isotopes were measured on day 7 in each period. The subjects' body weights, body compositions and plasma proteins were also examined during the study. Amino acid kinetics were measured based on the indicator amino acid oxidation technique using the $^{13}CO_2$ release rate and phenylalanine oxidation rate to estimate lysine requirements. Body weights, body compositions, and plasma proteins of subjects did not change significantly relative to those at baseline. The mean and the upper 95% CI of lysine requirements of Chinese habitual diets were determined to be 58.41 and $70.09mg{\cdot}kg^{-1}{\cdot}d^{-1}$, respectively, based on the $^{13}CO_2$ release rate and 54.28 and $65.14mg{\cdot}kg^{-1}{\cdot}d^{-1}$, respectively, based on the phenylalanine oxidation rate.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.359-362
• /
• 1996

A study was conducted to assess the influence of copper on the total sulphur amino acid requirements of broiler chickens reared under two growing periods. The TSAA levels used were 0.73, 0.83, 0.93% with copper levels of 0, 125, 250 and 375 mg/kg for the starter period and the TSAA levels of 0.72, 0.79 and 0.86% with copper levels of 0, 125, 250 and 375 mg/kg for the grower period. Total feed consumption, body weight gain and feed L gain ratio were used as the parameters for the assessment. The results showed that adding copper at 250 mg/kg to the diets improved feed : gain ratio of the starter broilers and resulted in small improvement of body weight gain and feed : gain ratio of the grower broilers. Growth was depressed in relation to the reduction of feed intake on the chicks fed diet containing 375 mg/kg copper. There was a significant interaction between dietary TSAA and copper levels for feed intake, hence, indicating that the supplementation of copper at the level of 375 mg/kg increased the TSAA requirement of the starter broilers, although no interference with the requirement of grower broilers.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.296-304
• /
• 2009

The nutritional significance of essential amino acids, as well as non-essential amino acids, is well documented in poultry production with regards to growth performance and protein accretion. However, the function of amino acids in the stress response is still unclear. L-Pipecolic acid, a L-lysine metabolite in the brain, induced a hypnotic and sedative effect acting via the ${\gamma}$- aminobutyric acid receptors. L-Arginine also induced a sedative effect via its metabolism to L-ornithine. In addition, three-carbon nonessential amino acids like L-alanine, L-serine and L-cysteine also induced sedative effects. These facts suggest that the requirement for amino acids in both essential and non-essential types may require reconsideration to add the concept of stress amelioration in the future.