Dietary interrelationships among arginine, methionine, and lysine in young broiler chicks

Since excess dietary lysine (Lys) can increase the chick's arginine (Arg) requirement and excess Arg can increase the chick's methionine (Met) requirement, experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that responses to dietary Lys and Met are also interrelated. Day-old Ross X Ross chicks were fed a maize-soyabean meal-based diet supplemented with four levels of L-Arg (0, 5, 10 or 20 g/kg), factorially arranged with four levels of supplemental DL-Met (0, 1, 2 or 3 g/kg). Three replicate pens of ten chicks each were randomly assigned to each treatment and fed for 14 d. An increase in Arg in the diet caused growth and feed-intake depression (P=0.0001), but increasing Met in the diet enhanced growth and feed intake (P=0.0001). Arg toxicity was dependent on the Met level of the diet (Arg X Met interaction; P=0.0153). Experiment 2 was conducted to study interrelationships among Arg, Met, and Lys. Eight treatments were factorially combined: two levels of supplemental L-Arg (0 or 10 g/kg), two levels of supplemental DL-Met (0 or 2 g/kg), and two levels of supplemental L-Lys (0 or 6 g/kg). Six replicate pens of eight chicks per treatment were used. A three-way interaction among Arg, Met, and Lys was observed for body-weight gain and feed intake (P<0.023). As expected, kidney arginase activity increased as dietary Lys increased (P=0.0004). No interactions were found for kidney arginase activity. Muscle creatine increased when chicks were fed the higher Arg (25.2 g/kg) diet (P=0.0047). A three-way interaction among Arg, Met, and Lys was found for muscle creatine (P=0.0075). Excess dietary Lys depressed muscle creatinine concentration, but only in the presence of the lower concentrations of Arg and Met. To conclude, an interrelationship among Arg, Met, and Lys was demonstrated, and it was probably related to creatine biosynthesis.