Three experiments were conducted to determine the arginine requirement and the digestible arginine:lysine ratio of broiler males, from 1 to 20, 24 to 38 and 44 to 56 days of age. A completely randomized design with five levels of arginine, six replicates and 20 birds per pens from 1 to 20 and 24 to 38, and 16 birds per pens from 44 to 56 were used in each experiment. The concentrations of digestible arginine were 1.10-1.34 (increase of 0,061), 1.083-1.296 (increase of 0,053) and 0,96-1,148% (increase of 0,047) for 1-20, 24-38 and 44-56 days of age respectively. At the end of each experiment performance and carcass yield were evaluated. Body weight gain and feed conversion responded quadratically to increasing levels of digestible arginine in the first phase. Using the broken line model, the requirement of digestible arginine and the ratio of digestible arginine:lysine for the first phase were 1,22% (1,31% total) and 105%, respectively, according to the results of body weight gain. No statistical difference in the second and third phases (24-38 days old and 44-56 days old, respectively) showed that the lowest level of digestible arginine of 1,083% (1,155% total) and 0,960% (1,026) met the birds requirement. These levels corresponded to a ratio of 102% in both phases.
amino acid; arginine; broilers; requirement
