Table 1: Mean performance over a period of 180 days (weeks 20 to 44,) of laying hens fed with supplemented liquid MHA-FA or with 65% of the dose using DL-methionine
Live weight (kg) Plumage quality*
Laying performance (%) Egg weight (g/egg) Egg mass (kg/kg)
Feed consumption (g/day)
Feed conversion (kg/kg egg mass)
Liquid MHA-FA 1.642 1.80 91.7 56.9 52.2
117.9 2.42
DL-Methionine 1.636 1.84 95.1 56.8 54.1
116.3 2.27
Due to the test setup with a low number of repetitions (n=2) per feed variant, the statistical analysis did not show any differences between the variants.
* A 4-level quality classification with used, where Level 0: No flaws, Level 1: Up to 1 cm² flaw, Level 2: > 1 cm² , <25 cm² flaws, Level 3: > 25 cm² flaws
MHA-Ca vs DL-Methionine A second study also explored the interchangeability of methionine products in 18 weeks old Isa-Brown layers. During 32 weeks 1,440 hens were tested in enriched cages in groups of 30 at the International Poultry Testing Station Ustrasice, in Czech Republic. A typical European diet based on wheat, maize, soybean meal, and wheat bran was the basis for the 5 treatments and represented the control group (n=12) that contained no methionine supplement and had a methionine + cysteine content of 0.53%. Two additional groups (n=9 each) with 1.2 or 2.4 kg/tonne MHA-Ca and two further treatments (n=9 each) in which DL- methionine was added to the feed at amounts of 0.78 and 1.56 kg/tonne corresponding to a replacement ratio of 100:65 for the two inclusion levels completed the trial design. The lower dosage was included to make the test more sensitive (Table 2). As expected, the methionine deficient negative control group
performed worse than the supplemented treatments. Supplemented MHA-Ca and DL-methionine in general improved performance, therefore it can be concluded that supplemented methionine was essentially required for optimized performance. However, there are no significant
differences between the two supplement levels, only numerical differences in daily egg mass (0.5 g/d) and feed conversion (1-2 points). There was also no statistically significant effect of methionine source at either supplementation level on laying performance.
Conclusion Methionine hydroxy analogue products have a bio-efficacy compared to DL-methionine of 65%. Comparing the corresponding groups of the above mentioned trials treated with MHA products and DL-methionine, it can be confirmed that the quantitative replacement ratio of 100:65 (MHA products: DL-methionine) had no negative effects on laying hen performance. Moreover, these findings are very much in line with the scientific opinion published in the EFSA Journal 20181
on the ‘Safety and
efficacy of hydroxy analogue of methionine and its calcium salt (ADRY+) for all animal species’, stating on page 16 that there is convincing evidence that the methionine hydroxy analogue products, on an equimolar/isosulfurous basis, have a significantly lower bioefficacy than DL-methionine (75% vs 100%) based on the numerous publications that have been assessed by the EFSA FEEDAP Panel in the above journal. On a commercial product base, this translates to the replacement of 100 parts of liquid MHA-FA products with 66 parts of DL-methionine and 100 parts of solid MHA-Ca with 63 parts of DL-methionine. Overall, the superior bio-efficacy of DL-methionine reduces
production costs per kilogram of egg in comparison to MHA products. Thus, switching to DL-methionine will not only help to reduce diet costs, but also improve homogeneity of the feed as dry DL-methionine mixes perfectly with the other dry components along the entire mixing cycle, while optimizing the utilization of the feed mill throughput. MetAMINO® is DL-Methionine produced by Evonik Nutrition & Care GmbH.
EFSA FEEDAP Panel (EFSA Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed), Rychen G, Aquilina G, Azimonti G, Bampidis V, Bastos ML, Bories G, Chesson A, Cocconcelli PS, Flachowsky G, Gropp J, Kolar B, Kouba M, López-Alonso M, López Puente S, Mantovani A, Mayo B, Ramos F, Saarela M, Roberto Edoardo Villa, Wester P, Costa L, Dierick N, Leng L, Tarrés-Call J and Wallace RJ, 2018. Scientific Opinion on the safety and efficacy of hydroxy analogue of methionine and its calcium salt (ADRY+® species. EFSA Journal 2018;16(3):5198, 17 pp.
Holly.malins@
evonik.com 1
) for all animal
Table 2: Performance evaluation of brown laying hens fed diets with two supplement levels (suboptimal; requirements based) of MHA- Ca or DL-methionine at a quantitative ratio of 100:65
Methionine source Dosage, kg/mt
Live weight, start (kg/hen) Live weight, end (kg/hen) Laying performance (%) Egg weight (g/egg) Egg mass (g/d)
Feed consumption (g/day) Feed conversion (kg/kg egg mass)
Control - -
1.481
1.945 b 80.8 b 59.7 b 48.2 b
140.5 b 2.88 b
Means with different superscript differ significantly (P<0.05) FEED COMPOUNDER JULY/AUGUST 2018 PAGE 35 Suboptimal
MHA-Ca 1.20
1.514
2.042 a 85.2 a 61.9 a 52.7 a
131.4 a 2.48 a
DL-Methionine 0.78
1.508
2.030 a 85.3 a 62.0 a 52.9 a
133.1 a 2.49 a
Requirements-based
MHA-Ca 2.40
1.506
2.065 a 85.5 a 62.2 a 53.2 a
133.0 a 2.48 a
DL-Methionine 1.56
1.501
2.039 a 86.0 a 62.2 a 53.4 a
132.6 a 2.47 a
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