Protein Quality and Amino Acid Utilization in Chickens

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. (