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. 2020 Aug 11;10(8):1392.
doi: 10.3390/ani10081392.

Interactive Effects of Glycine Equivalent, Cysteine, and Choline on Growth Performance, Nitrogen Excretion Characteristics, and Plasma Metabolites of Broiler Chickens Using Neural Networks Optimized with Genetic Algorithms

Philipp Hofmann  1 , Wolfgang Siegert  1 , Hamed Ahmadi  2 , Jochen Krieg  1 , Moritz Novotny  1 , Victor D Naranjo  3 , Markus Rodehutscord  1
Affiliations

Interactive Effects of Glycine Equivalent, Cysteine, and Choline on Growth Performance, Nitrogen Excretion Characteristics, and Plasma Metabolites of Broiler Chickens Using Neural Networks Optimized with Genetic Algorithms

Philipp Hofmann et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

Responses of broiler chickens to dietary glycine equivalent (Glyequi) are affected by dietary cysteine and choline. Hence, this study investigated interactive effects among dietary Glyequi, cysteine, and choline on the growth of broiler chickens. Male Ross 308 broiler chickens were maintained in 105 metabolism units (10 birds/unit) from days 7 to 22. Excreta were collected in 12-h intervals from days 18 to 21. Blood was sampled on day 22 (1 bird/unit). Five levels each of Glyequi (9-21 g/kg), cysteine (2-5 g/kg), and choline (0.5-1.7 g/kg) were tested under 15 diets in 7 replicates each following a fractional central composite design. Another diet was provided to five metabolism units (15 birds/unit) to measure prececal amino acid digestibility. Data were evaluated using neural networks. The gain:feed ratio (G:F) increased with digestible Glyequi intake. Differences between low and high digestible cysteine intake were low. Effects of choline intake on G:F were low. Nitrogen-utilization efficiency (NUE) was high (≥77%), with low variation among treatments. Plasma metabolites varied among treatments and indicated that metabolism of Glyequi, cysteine, and choline was influenced. These findings showed that interactive effects of dietary Glyequi, cysteine, and choline on growth were small, possibly because NUE was barely influenced.

Keywords: ammonia; broiler chickens; choline; cysteine; glycine equivalent; interactive effect; neural networks; nitrogen-utilization efficiency; uric acid.

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Conflict of interest statement

V.D.N. is an employee of Evonik Nutrition & Care GmbH. All other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Relationship between diet concentrations and prececal digestible intake of glycine equivalent (dGlyequi), cysteine (dCys), methionine (dMet), and total choline (Cho) by broiler chickens from days 7 to 21 (blue lines) and days 18 to 21 (orange lines). y is the intake (mg/d) of dGlyequi, dCys or dMet or the total intake of Cho, and x is the dietary concentration (g/kg) of glycine equivalent (Glyequi), cysteine (Cys), methionine (Met), or Cho.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Effect of digestible glycine equivalent (dGlyequi) intake on gain:feed ratio of broiler chickens at varying digestible cysteine (dCys) and choline (Cho) intake from days 7 to 21. dCys and Cho intake levels correspond to level −1, 0, and +1 based on the fractional central composite design.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effect of digestible glycine equivalent (dGlyequi) intake on nitrogen−utilization efficiency (NUE) of broiler chickens at varying digestible cysteine (dCys) and medium choline (Cho) intake from days 18 to 21 (a), and the effect of dGlyequi intake on the NUE of broiler chickens at varying Cho and low, medium, and high dCys intake from days 18 to 21 (b–d). dCys and Cho intake levels correspond to level −1, 0, and +1 based on the fractional central composite design.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Effect of digestible glycine equivalent (dGlyequi) intake on total nitrogen (N) excretion of broiler chickens at varying digestible cysteine (dCys) and medium choline (Cho) intake from days 18 to 21 (a), and effect of dGlyequi intake on total N excretion of broiler chickens at varying Cho and low, medium, and high dCys intake from days 18 to 21 (b–d). dCys and Cho intake levels correspond to level −1, 0, and +1 based on the fractional central composite design.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Effect of digestible glycine equivalent (dGlyequi) intake on uric acid (UA) (a) and ammonia (NH3) (e) excretion of broiler chickens at varying digestible cysteine (dCys) and medium choline (Cho) intake from days 18 to 21, and the effect of dGlyequi intake on UA (b–d) and NH3 (f–h) excretion of broiler chickens at varying Cho and low, medium, and high dCys intake from days 18 and 21. dCys and Cho intake levels correspond to level −1, 0, and +1 based on the fractional central composite design.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Effect of digestible glycine equivalent (dGlyequi) intake on uric acid−nitrogen/(uric acid−nitrogen + ammonia−nitrogen) ratio ((UA-N/(UA-N + NH3-N) ratio) in the excreta of broiler chickens at varying digestible cysteine (dCys) and choline (Cho) intake from days 18 to 21. dCys and Cho intake levels correspond to level −1, 0, and +1 based on the fractional central composite design.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Effect of digestible glycine equivalent (dGlyequi) intake with varying digestible cysteine (dCys) and choline (Cho) intake from days 7 to 21 on plasma glycine (Gly) (a), methionine (Met) (b), homocystine (Hcys) (c), and cystathionine (Cysta) (d) concentrations of broiler chickens on day 22. dCys and Cho intake levels correspond to level −1, 0, and +1 based on the fractional central composite design.
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