Dietary Addition of Betaine on the Performance of Broilers Fed with Diets with a Reduction in Methionine and Choline

Abstract

A six-week experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of broiler chicken (n=560) fed betaine added diets to reduce methionine and choline. There were five treatments, each with eight replicates comprising fourteen birds, each. The negative control groups (NC) were fed with betaine free basal diet. The positive control (PC) groups were fed with 0.05% betaine added basal diet. The three treatment groups (T1-T3) received 0.05% betaine added basal diet integrated with 20, 40, and 60% reduction in methionine and choline, respectively. Birds were reared on deep litter system with ad-lib feeding. The results showed PC bird groups had the highest body weight gain, followed by T1, NC, T2, and T3. The PC bird groups showed a significant (P<0.001) increase in the foot web index, serum antibody titer, and relative immune organ weights (bursa, spleen, and thymus) in the PC and T1 groups. The PC diet significantly (P<0.001) reduced shrinkage loss and fat pad thickness of chickens. Significantly higher (P<0.002) eviscerated and ready-to-cook yields with substantially better relative heart, breast, and neck weights were recorded in chickens fed PC and T1. Conclusively, betaine at a dietary level of 0.05% integrated with a 20% reduction in methionine and choline significantly improved growth performance, livability, immunity, and carcass traits of broiler chickens.