Large variations are found in the amino acid and
protein recommendations of Primary Breeders (i.e.,
Ross, Cobb-Vantress) for amino acid requirements for
broiler breeder hens. Broiler breeders may potentially
have more profound changes in BW, egg weight, and
egg mass than a commercial egg-type laying hen: which
enhances the need for developing amino acid requirement
data. Amino acid requirements based on egg production
data obtained in past research (Sakomura et
al., 2011) may reflect egg production that would be
less than optimum compared with the present higher
producing breeder hen. A statistical reporting service
recently reported that hatching egg production for the
Cobb 500 breeder hen increased from 148 hatching
eggs/hen housed in January 2005 to 157 hatching eggs/
hen housed on Jan 2010 (AgriStats Inc., 2000–2010).
The Cobb-Vantress (2008) and Ross (2007) management
guides place the total Lys requirements at 1,256
and 1,409 mg/bird per d, respectively. Fisher (1998) developed
factorial amino acid requirements for breeders
and suggested the Lys requirement was 1,121 mg/bird
per d at 29 wk. The NRC (1994) suggests the dietary
protein requirements for breeders is 19.5 g/bird per d;
however, the poultry industry generally feeds breeders
on a daily ME intake basis and the % protein remains
at 15 to 16% regardless of intake. Because dietary energy
prices are presently expensive, many producers
have decided to decrease dietary ME levels and allocate
more feed to the hens at each feeding during peak egg
production. The daily protein intake for breeders in the
industry ranges from 24 to 29 g and is clearly above the
19 g suggested by the NRC (1994).