Feed grade Lysine is a vitally important feed additive widely used in the production of compound feeds and premixes for various types of farm animals, including poultry and fish. Its primary purpose is to enrich and balance animal diets with lysine, ensuring complete development and high productivity.
Lysine’s Key Role in Metabolism
Lysine is an essential amino acid, meaning that animal bodies cannot synthesize it themselves and must obtain it through their feed. This amino acid is a component of almost all proteins and performs numerous critically important functions:
- Mineral Absorption: Lysine actively promotes the body’s absorption of phosphorus, calcium, and iron. This is particularly important for the formation and maintenance of healthy bones and teeth, as well as for preventing anemia. It improves calcium absorption from the blood and its transport to bone tissue, making it valuable in the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis.
- Hemoglobin Synthesis: It contributes to an increase in hemoglobin levels in the blood, which ensures efficient oxygen transport throughout the body.
- Improved Digestion: Lysine improves digestive processes in general, contributing to more complete breakdown and absorption of nutrients from feed.
- Energy Source and Growth Stimulator: It is an energy source for cells, stimulates protein synthesis in the body, which is critically important for bone growth and formation, and also stimulates cell division and nucleotide synthesis, the basic building blocks of DNA and RNA.
Lysine as a Limiting Amino Acid
In livestock nutrition, lysine is often a limiting amino acid, meaning it’s a factor that restricts the utilization of other amino acids for protein synthesis, even if they are present in sufficient quantities in the diet.
- For pigs, lysine is the first limiting amino acid, meaning that its deficiency in the diet directly impacts growth rates and feed efficiency.
- For poultry, lysine is the second limiting amino acid after methionine.
Bioavailability and Practical Application
The digestibility of lysine found in cereals is 75-85%, while in animal proteins it’s 85-95%. However, biosynthetic lysine has 100% digestibility, making it a highly effective supplement.
The use of feed grade lysine contributes to:
- Intensive growth and weight gain in young animals, shortening fattening periods.
- More efficient feed utilization, leading to reduced production costs.
- Increased milk yield in cattle.
- Increased egg production in poultry.
Feed grade lysine is incorporated into premixes and compound feeds at feed mills or on-farm feed preparation units, using standard mixing technologies. The precise dosage is determined by specialists based on the species, age, and productivity of the animals, as well as the specific dietary needs.
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