VIDEO: Examining the nutritional value of methionine

Learn how the different methionine sources influence nutritional values and the recommendations for accurate inclusions in poultry diets.

Evonik offers recommendations for accurately measuring the nutritional value of the methionine sources available

Correctly identifying the nutritional value of feed additives — methionine specifically — is a crucial step in ensuing the feed producers profitability. Overfeeding methionine, for example, can mask deficiencies and raise costs.

Evonik’s technical sales manager Kyle Smith joins the Chat to discuss the different methionine sources and the risks of methionine overfeeding on broiler production.

Transcript: Feed Strategy Chat with Kyle Smith, Evonik’s technical sales manager

Jackie Roembke, editor, Feed Strategy: Hello everyone and welcome to Feed Strategy Chat. I am your host, Jackie Roembke, editor of Feed Strategy magazine.

This edition of Feed Strategy Chat is brought to you by Evonik.

Today’s livestock producers are under pressure to boost performance. That means getting the most return from animals and achieving the highest level of productivity at the lowest possible cost. This can be achieved only if the methionine source used is correctly supplemented.

Evonik Animal Nutrition is a highly reliable, globally operating provider of science-driven products and services for sustainable and efficient production of meat, fish, eggs and milk.

MetAMINO from Evonik ensures the adequate supply of sulfur amino acids, particularly the essential methionine. Not just better, but the best results with MetAMINO from Evonik.

Today we are joined on Zoom by Kyle Smith, Evonik’s technical sales manager, to discuss methionine in broiler diets. Hi, Kyle, how are you today?

Kyle Smith, Evonik’s technical sales manager: Good. Thank you for having me.

Roembke: Excellent. Thanks for being here. Please tell me a little bit about why the nutritional value of methionine sources is so important in broiler production.

Smith: Yes, I definitely can. So there are three commercially available sources of methionine available to the feed industry: DL-methionine, L-methionine and MHA. Now, the majority of feed production in the U.S. either utilizes DL or MHA. The nutritional value is an important concept because it can really save the feed producer money if applied correctly.

It’s well understood that DL-methionine has a 99% availability to the animal; while the availability of MHA is a little bit harder to decipher. By volume MHA is 12% water so at maximum it can have 88% availability. However, this is not the case, as Evonik has demonstrated for decades, it is actually closer to around 65% due to the chemical structure of the MHA.

Roembke: And what happens to broiler productivity if the assumed nutritional value is incorrect?

Smith: Well, we all know that if you overfeed methionine, you won’t see a deficiency. So oftentimes, it goes unnoticed by MHA users that the nutritional value should actually be lower in their system. By overfeeding MHA, it can actually appear to have a much higher nutritional value, and actually look closer to what you would observe with DL-methionine.

While overfeeding doesn’t negatively effect animal performance, it does increase diet formulation, which also increases the production cost of the animal.

Roembke: And what recommendations do you have for accurately measuring the value for the best results?

Smith: Well, the best way to measure the nutritional value is to collaborate on either a field or research trial, where we can clearly identify in a protocol the greatest levels of inclusion for both defining sources DL and MHA. I recommend to reach out to your local technical service person and inquire about this as we, Evonik, are always willing and able to help identify the correct value for your system.

Roembke: Excellent. Thank you so much. And if you’d like more information about Evonik and their methionine product, please visit MetAMINO.com. Thanks, Kyle, and thanks to you for tuning in.

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