Abstract
A 10 week experiment was conducted on 120 Babcock commercial layers of 30 weeks age, in a completely randomized design to study the effect of supplementation of methionine to a normal layer ration on the production performance of caged layers. A ration containing 0.32 % methionine ( all from natural feedstuffs used) served as control, while the latter was supplemented with 15, 30 or 45g synthetic methionine per 100 kg ration, to obtain experimental rations having ultimately 0.335, 0.350 or 0.365 % total methionine. A significant linear improvement in egg production and feed efficiency was observed with increasing levels of supplemental methionine. However, feed consumption, egg shell thickness, albumen thickness and yolk index remained unaffected. The results showed that methionine requirement, under local conditions, for better egg production of layers ranged from 388 to 406 mgt day and a routine layer ration with 16 % protein needed to be supplemented with about 30g methionine per 100 kg ration, to obtain a level of 0.35 % methionine in the feed
