A Determination Bioavailability of Herbal Methionine Based upon Growth Performance and Immunocompetence in Broiler Chickens

A total of 160 day-old male broiler chickens (Ross 308) were divided in a completely randomized design experiment, and assigned to 8 treatments and 4 replicates in their experimental units (cages). Treatments included: T1: basal diet with no additional methionine, T2: basal diet plus 0.06, T3: basal diet plus 0.11, T4: basal diet plus 0.17 % of DL-methionine, T5: basal diet plus 0.06, T6: basal diet plus 0.11, T7: basal diet plus 0.17, T8: basal diet plus 0.22 % of Herbal methionine. To investigate the immunocompetence of birds at 28 and 42 days of age, two tests were conducted: responding to antibody titer against antigen of Sheep Red Blood Cell (SRBC) and responding to dilution 1-choloro 2-3- DiNitroBenzene (DNCB). Multiexponential and multilinear regressions were employed to determine bioavailability of Herbal Methionine (H-Met)® relative to DL-Met on growth performance and immunocompetence of broilers. Body weight gain and feed intake of the broilers (fed either H-Met or DL Met) improved in the experiment, regardless of Met sources, in comparison with broilers fed basal diet. Immunocompetence results of broilers were not significant at 28 day of age (p