Abstract: The present study was conducted to evaluate the threonine requirement for Pekin ducks in low protein diets by determining the effects of threonine on growth performance,carcass traits,and serum parameters.In total,240 1-day-old were randomly allocated to one of five dietary treatments with six replicate cages with eight duck for each treatment according to average body weight.They were fed low protein diets (17.65%) with 0.41%,0.48%,0.55%,0.62% or 0.69% threonine from 1 to 21 days of age,respectively.The results showed that threonine supplementation in low protein diets improved body weight,weight gain,feed intake,and breast muscle percentage,and reduced the ratio of feed to gain (P<0.01).Threonine supplementation in low protein diets had no influence on thigh muscle percentage,and the activity of ALT and AST,and the contents of TP,ALB,GLB and GLU in serum (P>0.05),but reduced the contents of CHO,TG,HDLC and LDLC in serum (P<0.05).The evaluated threonine requirement in low protein diets based on linear broken-line regression with weight,weight gain,feed intake,ratio of feed to gain,and breast muscle percentage were 0.594%,0.594%,0.595%,0.513% and 0.607%,respectively.In summary,the optimal dietary threonine levels would be 0.607% for Pekin ducks fed low protein diets from 1 to 21 days of age.Although which failed to support equal growth performance to that of high protein diets,it was possible to reduce nitrogen emissions.

Key words: Pekin ducks; threonine requirement; low protein diets