Low crude protein amino acids diets for laying hens: Optimizing isoleucine levels for egg size, reduced nitrogen excretion and gut health

盈利能力和可持续性是我们家禽客户非常重要的考虑因素。加拿大的家禽业正处于转型阶段，因为面临着采用替代鸡舍（地板、无笼）和减少使用亚治疗性抗菌生长促进剂（AGP）的压力。由于这些监管和社会压力，我们的家禽客户正在寻找解决方案，以最大限度地减少AGP的使用，并减少对环境的影响，特别是家禽房中对鸟类和人类有害的氨气排放。饲粮粗蛋白质浓度对肠道菌群有显著的定性和定量影响。例如，一些研究表明，氨基酸分布过度不平衡的高蛋白饮食会增加肠道中致病菌和有毒代谢物的浓度。因此，调整蛋白质供应和氨基酸分布可以被认为是实现最佳性能和控制肠道病原体的必要条件，这些肠道病原体通过受污染的家禽产品对鸟类和人类健康有影响。此外，减少日粮粗蛋白质导致排泄物中的氮减少，微生物转化为氨的可能性降低。我们对确定低粗蛋白质日粮的最佳异亮氨酸需求特别感兴趣，因为这种氨基酸与这些日粮中较差的生产性能（鸡蛋大小）有关。因此，异亮氨酸是一个缺乏研究数据来支持配方决策的技术挑战

Profitability and sustainability are very important considerations for our poultry customers. The poultry sector in Canada is intransition because of pressure to adopt alternative housing for layers (litter floors, cage-free) and to reduce the use of subtherapeutic antimicrobial growth promoters (AGP). Because of these regulatory and social pressures our poultry customers arelooking for solutions to minimize use of AGP and to decrease environmental impact particularly ammonia gas emissions in poultryhouses which have detrimental effects on birds and humans. Dietary crude protein concentration has a significant impact on theintestinal microbiota, both qualitatively and quantitatively. For example, several studies indicate that high protein diets with excessand unbalanced amino acid profiles increase the concentrations of pathogenic bacteria and toxic metabolites in the gut. Therefore,adjusting protein supply and amino acid profiles can be considered as essential to achieve optimal performance and to control theintestinal pathogens with implication to bird and human health through contaminated poultry products. Moreover, reducing dietarycrude protein leads to reduced nitrogen in the excreta with less potential for microbial conversion to ammonia. . We are specificallyinterested in determining optimal isoleucine requirements in low crude protein diets as this amino acid has been associated withpoor performance (egg size) in these diets. Therefore, isoleucine, is a technical challenge where research data is lacking tosupport formulation decisions..Ontario