ARTICLE 60 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE April 2024 thionine) or HMTBa “DL-2-hydroxy-(4-methylthio) butanoic acid” (ADISSEO Rhodimet® AT88) can deliver extra values. Besides its main function to supply methionine and cysteine, OH-Methionine owns other proven nutritional and molecular features that can benefit all stakeholders involved in livestock business: commercial feed miller, integrated group, and farmers. Feed millers will have high flexibility in raw material selection and feed formulation with consequent feed cost reduction, allowing them to successfully thrive in this very competitive market. The integrator will register a positive impact of the optimized diets on animal performances, and thus the cost per kg of animal origin products. Finally, farmers will benefit from buying feed at lower cost without compromising animal performance. OH-METHIONINE: A 100% EFFICIENT SOURCE OF METHIONINE Rhodimet® AT88 is a source of Methionine+Cysteine with 100% efficacy and 88% of active ingredient, equivalent to 880 g of L-Methionine per each kg of commercial product, after animals' synthesis. The real value of Rhodimet AT88 is quite established and has been demonstrated in many studies done over the years. One example is a large-scale field trial, in which more than 1 million broilers over a period of 10 months were fed various diets supplemented with DL-Methionine or OH-Methionine at equimolar level. All the analyzed zootechnical performances (Feed Intake, Feed Conversion Ratio, Average Daily Gain and Final Body Weight) were not statistically different (Figure 1). Furthermore, two meta-analyses studies including the most recent scientific publications in broilers and piglets, demonstrated no statistical differences between the various sources of methionine. More recently, a scientific trial designed with a statistically robust experimental design (35 replications per group conferring a high statistical power to the test) once again did not show any statistical difference between the two groups receiving DL-Methionine or OH-Methionine at equimolar level. Performance parameters were also submitted to an innovative statistical approach that confirmed again the equivalence between the two groups. USE OF A CRUDE PROTEIN VALUE FOR OH-METHIONINE IN FORMULATION In the feed industry we tend to refer to crude protein (CP) as reference of the protein content of each diet. Crude protein principle is also used as reference for qualitative/quantitative feed analysis, and it is calculated multiplying the nitrogen level of a diet by a constant factor 6.25. The principle of crude protein is nowadays criticized by pointing out its various limitations. At first, not all nitrogen sources are proteins. Secondly, not all protein sources have the same nitrogen content and thus must have a different constant factor. For instance, for most grains and soybean, the most appropriate factor must be 5.7-5.8 rather than 6.25. If we apply the same principle to amino acids, we will have cases with a very low CP value as well as others showing a CP level significantly higher than 100%. One specific case is that of OH-methionine. From a nutritional point of view it is scientifically proven to be equivalent to other sources of methionine. However, it could not have a CP level due to the absence of a OH - Methionine P = 0.58 P = 0.84 DL - Methionine OH - Methionine DL - Methionine 2,234 1,568 1,563 2,283 Final Body weight, kg Feed conversion ratio 2,400 2,300 2,200 2,100 2,000 1,900 1,800 1,600 1,500 1,400 1,300 1,200 1,100 1,000 Figure 1. Some zootechnical performance of broilers from field trial
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