The objective of this work was to determine digestible sulfurous amino acids levels to establish the ideal methionine+cystine:lysine relationships in meals of light-weight laying hens in the period from 24 to 40 weeks of age. It was used 216 Hy-Line W36 birds distributed in a randomized block design with 6 levels each one with 6 repetitions and 6 birds per experimental unit. The digestible sulfurous amino acids levels were obtained from a basal diet with low levels of digestible metionin+cistine (0.65%) supplemented with 0.00; 0.05; 0.10; 0.15; 0.20 and 0.25% of DL-methionine (99.2%) to provide a relationship methionine+cystine:lysine of 84, 91, 97, 104, 110 and 117%. The experimental period lasted 16 weeks and it was subdivided in 4 subperiods of collection of the eggs, each one corresponding to 28 days. Levels of digestible methionine+cistine affected egg production and lysine utilization efficiency per total egg production, reaching a plateau in 0.811 and 0.772% of digestible methionine+cistine, respectively. The digestible methionine+cystine level considered as a requirement for light-weight laying hens in the period from 24 to 40 weeks of age is of 0.772%, corresponding to digestible methionine+cystine consumption of 682 mg/hen/day, and the relationship methionine+cystine:lysine of 100%.
ideal protein; nutritional requirements; sulfur amino acid
