The objective of this study wast to determine the requirement of digestible lysine for light-weight laying hens 24 to 40 weeks of age. Two hundred and sixteen Hy-Line W36 light-weight laying hens were allotted to a randomized complete blocks with six treatments, six blocks and six hens per experimental unit. The treatments consisted of a basal diet, with 14.54% crude protein, deficient in digestible lysine (0.545%), supplemented with six levels of L-lysine HCl (78%) 0.00; 0.059; 0.118; 0.177; 0.237 and 0.295%. Considering the digestibility of the lysine to be 97.6%, the amount of L-lysine. HCl added in each diet supplied 0.00; 0.045; 0.090; 0.135; 0.180 and 0.225 digestible lysine, respectively, resulting in diets with 0.545; 0.590; 0.635; 0.680; 0.725 and 0.770% digestible lysine. Feed intake, lysine intake, egg production, average egg weight, egg mass, feed conversion (kg feed/egg dozen), albumen index and final weight gain of the chickens showed a linear response with increase in the digestible lysine levels. There was a quadratic effect for the levels of digestible lysine on feed conversion/egg mass but no significant effect on Haugh Units, yolk index and egg components was detected. The digestible lysine requirement was estimated to be at least 0.770% of the diet, corresponding to the intake of 759 mg of lysine digestible/hen/day.
amino acids; eggs production; nutritional requirements
