Two experiments were carried out to determine the response of broiler chicks to threonine-supplemented diets between 10 and 28 d and 7 and 21 d of age, respectively. 2. In the first experiment female broiler chicks were fed on 11 experimental diets. Two iso-energetic basal diets (diets 1 and 2) were prepared with 200 and 160 g CP/kg and 7.6 and 6.0 g threonine/kg respectively. Both diets contained 11.5 g lysine and 8.7 g sulphur-containing amino acids/kg. Diet 3 was composed of diet 2, supplemented with all essential and non-essential amino acids (EAA and NEAA, respectively) except threonine, to the concentrations of the amino acids in diet 1. The NEAA were added as a combination of glutamic acid and glycine. Diets 4 to 11 had the same compositions as diet 3, but contained increasing amounts of threonine. 3. For birds fed on diet 2, gain was significantly lower and food/gain ratio was significantly higher than for birds fed on diet 1. Supplementation with EAA, NEAA and threonine to the same concentrations in diet 1 resulted in a performance similar to that found on diet 1. 4. In experiment 2, male and female broiler chicks both received 10 experimental diets. Diet 1 contained 220 g CP/kg and 8.5 g threonine/kg, diet 2 contained 160 g CP/kg from natural raw materials and 6 g threonine/kg. Both diets contained 12.4 g lysine and 9.3 g sulphur-containing amino acids/kg. Basal diet 2 was supplemented with all EAA and NEAA to the concentrations of basal diet 1, except for threonine. Diets 3 to 10 had the same compositions as the supplemented diet 2, but contained increasing amounts of threonine. 5. For male and female chicks on diet 2, gain was significantly lower and food/gain ratio significantly higher than those on diet 1. Diet 10 (160 g CP/kg plus all EAA, including threonine, and NEAA supplemented to the concentrations of diet 1) resulted in the same performance as diet 1. 6. The results indicate that, when low protein maize-soyabean meal diets supplemented with EAA and NEAA with 13.31 MJ ME/kg were fed to male and female broiler chicks until 21 d of age, improvements in gain and food/gain ratio were obtained when the dietary threonine content was increased to 7.25 g/kg. When female chicks were fed threonine-supplemented diets to 28 d of age, improvement in gain and food/gain ratio was obtained when the threonine concentrations were increased to 6.32 g/kg diet.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
