Estimating real-time amino acid requirements in broiler population by sustainable precision farming system: a simulation

The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate by simulation a mathematical model to estimate in real-time aminoacid requirements and optimal dietary nutrient concentration for broiler population. The empirical components, daily feed intake (DFI), body weight (BW) and daily gain were estimated in real time. Based of these three variables, a factorial equation was used to estimate the optimal concentration of amino acids to be supplied to a population of broiler chickens characterizing the mechanistic component model. Ideal dietary concentrations of these nutrients are calculated by dividing the sum of the maintenance and growth requirements by the ME intake. The empirical components were evaluated by simulating the DFI and BW data from a study that investigated the effect of multiphase feeding (14 phases) vs conventional (5 phases) in broilers. Results were compared with those estimated by the model. The mechanistic component was evaluated by means of data coherence, based on theoretical aspects and other published results. Finally, proposed model was evaluated comparing it with the Gompertz function. The accuracy of the proposed model and Gompertz was evaluated using the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). The results of empirical component showed that the trajectory of DFI and BW might be estimated by the proposed model from the fourth day with the average MAPE of 0.90 and 1.25%, respectively. In contrast, the average MAPE obtained with Gompertz, for the same variables was 8.09 and 4.75, respectively. The mechanistic component model was able to estimate the requirement of Lys,% (average CV=6.84%) for the most demanding individual in that population when compared with the reference population (average individual's profile). The factorial approach used in the model allows us to estimate daily requirements of a population taking into account the intake and growth changes of the broiler population. The model proposed in this study has shown good accuracy to monitor DFI and BW as well as to estimate the aminoacidic requirements and optimal dietary concentrations considering the intake and growth. Nevertheless, most studies it is necessary to consider the population variability as well as the parameters used, as these were obtained using the current models.