Effect of Supplementation of Methionine, Betaine and Choline on the Performance of Broiler Chicken in Early Life Fed Methionine Deficient Ration

The experiment was designed and conducted to evaluate the effect of methionine, betaine and choline in the broiler chicks given low methionine starter ration. Day old broiler chicks (n=250), were randomly divided into five treatment groups (n=5) with five replicates of ten chicks. A low methionine (LM) starter ration was formulated and the treatment groups were (A) LM supplemented with methionine @ 0.14%, (B) LM, (C) LM supplemented with choline @ 0.17%, (D) LM supplemented with betaine @ 0.14% and (E) LM with Betaine @ 0.07% in the starter ration. Choline was added @ 700 mg/kg to treatment groups (A and B). Data of weight gain (WG) and feed intake (FI) were collected from 0-28 days and feed conversion ratio (FCR) was calculated. Statistical analysis of data revealed significant differences among the treatment groups in FI, WG and FCR (P<0.05). Supplementation of Choline and betaine to treatment groups C, D and E respectively did not show results as per treatment group (A) supplemented with methionine. However, betaine supplementation showed better WG and FCR as compared to treatment B and C (P<0.05); but the inclusion rate of betaine had no significant effect on the performance of broiler chicken (P>0.05).