Amino
acids are the building blocks of protein, without amino acids it would be very
difficult to produce the quantity of meat, milk, fish and eggs demanded by
European consumers. Poultry require amino acids for both maintenance and for
growth. There are hundreds of amino acids that occur in nature, but only 21 of
them are used for protein synthesis. For poultry and other pet animals,
methionine and lysine are the two most critical amino acids.
An
essential ingredient in your pet’s food is the amino acid. Unlike humans, pets
are unable to synthesise it for mother sources, so it has to be present in
their food. If essential amino acids missing from their diet your pet can
develop a serious disease. The amino acid requirements of poultry are
influenced by several factors, including production level, genotype, sex,
physiological status, environment and health status. Essential amino acids,
lysine, methionine and threonine are the most limiting in most practical
poultry diets.
The
availability of amino acids has allowed feeds to be produced using smaller
quantities of protein rich raw materials allowing these limited scarce
resources to be used more sparingly. Essential amino acids supplementation generally
increased growth rate and improved feed utilization of chickens. The essential amino acids for poultry are
threonine, lysine, methionine, isoleucine, valine, leucine, tryptophan,
histidine, phenylalanine and arginine.
The
protein that our pets eat is largely digested in the bowel and absorbed as the
constituent amino acids, which are then broken down and assimilated in the
liver and other body tissues.
