Glutamic acid supplementation on low protein diets for laying hens

With the objective of evaluating the effect of reducing crude protein (CP) and L-glutamic acid supplementation, Dekalb Brown laying hens with 34 weeks of age. The birds were distributed in six treatments in a completely randomized design, eight replications of eight birds. The control diet contained 17% CP. The second and third treatments had CP reduced by 1.5 and 3.0 percentage points (pp) of CP in relation to the control diet, respectively. In the fourth treatment, was added the same amount of glutamate of the control diet (2.982%), and the last two treatments was added 1 and 2 pp of glutamate in relation to control diet (3.982 and 4.98%), respectively. The treatment with 15.17% CP + 0.341% L-glutamic acid (T4) promoted higher egg production, and the control diet showed greater egg weight than others treatments. There was no significant effect on the variables on quality of eggs. The T4 presented values of excreted nitrogen similar to the others treatments, with lower concentration of uric acid than the control diet and lower cost in the production. In conclusion, it is recommended the treatment with 15.17% CP + 0.341% L-glutamic acid for Brown laying hens with 34 weeks of age.