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Amino acid requirements of the growing meat rabbit 2. Comparative growth performance on practical diets of equal lysine concentration but decreasing levels of other amino acids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

W. H. Schultze ,
W. C. Smith  and
P. J. Moughan
W. H. Schultze
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Science, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
W. C. Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Science, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
P. J. Moughan
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Science, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
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Abstract

Over a 40-day period nine rabbits were each given one of nine isocaloric diets with progressively reduced amounts of crude protein (159 to 97 g/kg) but a fixed level of lysine; the latter was slightly below the higher of the National Research Council (NRC, 1977) and Societe de Chime Organique et Biologique (AEC, 1978) recommendations. The proportion of each other essential amino acid in the diet of highest crude protein concentration was close to a balance derived from the higher of each independently determined amino acid requirement given by NRC (1977) and AEC (1978), while the proportions in the two diets of lowest crude protein level were below those in a theoretical amino acid balance based on rabbit whole-body tissue composition. When an intersecting linear regression line model was fitted to growth performance data over the period, performance was found to be similar on the first six diets (159 to 123 g crude protein per kg) but further reductions in dietary protein were accompanied by a decline in growth rate and concomitant increase in food conversion ratio. Fitting of an asymptotic model to the data showed that growth performance first declined markedly between diets four and five (130 to 120 g crude protein per kg). These findings suggest that if a balance of essential amino acids relative to lysine, based on current amino acid recommendations, is adhered to in diet formulation for the growing rabbit, several of these amino acids will be in excess of requirement

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , October 1988 , pp. 303 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1988

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References

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