A trial was carried out to determine the nutritional requeriments of methionine + cystine (M+C). A total of 360 laying hens was allotted to a completely randomized design with five treatments and 12 replicates of six birds. The corn-soybean meal based diets were formulated to be isonitrogenous (17.2% CP) and isoenergy (2,800 kcal ME/kg) to meet the bird requeriment in all nutrients, except for M+C, that was supplemented with DL-methionine (99%) in replacement with corn starch. The following total M+C levels were obtained: 0.61, 0.68, 0.75, 0.82, and 0.89%. All variables were evaluated from 20 to 44 weeks old. Egg weight, egg mass and egg mass:feed ratio were all affected quadratically by the M+C levels. The estimates obtained were: 0.73, 0.69, and 0.69% of total lysine and 0.66, 0.63, and 0.63% of digestible M+C, respectively. Therefore, it is recommended levels of 0.70 and 0.64% or intake of 762 and 697 mg total and digestible M+C/bird/day, respectively, for semi-heavy laying hens from the starter to peak of egg production.
amino acid; performance; nutrition
