Impact of dietary glutamine on amino acid digestibility values and intestinal morphometric parameters in neonate chicks

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of fortification of the pre-starter diet with glutamine in post-hatch broiler chicks. In the first experiment, male chicks were used to study the impact of glutamine supplementation at three levels (0%, 1% and 2%) on performance, apparent faecal digestibility (AFD) and ileal digestibility (AID) of amino acids (AAs), as well as intestinal morphometric parameters from 0 to 14 days old. The best performance was obtained at 1% supplementation. Average daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were affected by treatments. Supplementing diets with glutamine resulted in increase of digestibility values for arginine (Arg), lysine (Lys), isoleucine (Ile) and valine (Val). Glutamine-supplemented diets led to higher villus height (VH) and shallower crypt depth (CD) in the jejunum and ileum. A second experiment was performed to investigate whether the form of glutamine could affect performance and morphometric parameters in newly hatched chickens. A control diet was prepared, based on casein as the sole source of protein-bound AAs. Three diets based on synthetic AAs were used to obtain nutrient values of the control diet, which were supplemented with a synthetic form of glutamine, glutamic acid and a 50 : 50 ratio of glutamine : glutamic acid. Chickens fed the control diet presented higher average daily weight gain and better FCR. None of the AID coefficients of amino acids were influenced by the dietary treatments, except glutamic acid and aspartic acid, which were decreased in chicks fed synthetic AAs. In conclusion, 1% glutamine supplementation improved performance, morphometric parameters and AID and AFD values of cationic AAs. The form in which dietary glutamine was provided could affect performance.Keywords: Amino acid, broiler, digestibility, intestinal morpholog

Effects of glycine and glutamic acid supplementation to low protein diets on performance, thyroid function and fat deposition in chickens

Consumption of low crude protein (CP) diets causes elevation in fat accumulation in chickens, and this effect is independent of dietary essential amino acid levels. Thyroid hormones, because of their metabolic regulatory characteristics, might be an effective factor in lipogenesis. Therefore, a study was conducted to investigate the influence of low CP diets on hormonal function of the thyroid. Two hundred and sixteen male broiler chicks, 10 - 25 days of age, were fed experimental diets that contained 230, 210, 190 and 170 g CP/kg with adequate amounts of total and digestible essential amino acids at or above NRC (1994) recommendations. Two other diets were the same as the 190 and 170 g CP/kg diets but contained additional glycine and glutamic acid. Reduction in CP below 190 g/kg led to a decline in body weight and feed intake and an increase in fat deposition in body, as would be expected. Plasma T4 concentration decreased significantly in the birds on the 170 g CP/kg diet and supplementation of glycine and glutamic acid had no effect on hormonal levels of the thyroid despite the reduction in whole-body and abdominal cavity fat deposition. Plasma T3 concentration was not affected. Therefore, it is concluded that a reduction in circulatory levels of T4 that occurs in broiler chicks fed diets containing below 190 g CP/kg though with adequate essential amino acids, may be an effective method of increasing fat deposition. Keywords: Crude protein, nonessential amino acids, T3, T4, lipid depositio