The experiment was carried out to evaluate the effects of diets with different levels of crude protein (CP) and lysine (LYS) on characteristics of performance, egg internal quality, and nitrogen balance/retention. It was used 160 Hisex White laying hens at 48 weeks of age, individually accomodated in a complete random design in a 4 × 2 factorial scheme with four levels of crude protein (12, 14, 16 and 18%) and two levels of lysine (0.85 and 1.00%), totalizing eight treatments with five replicates of four birds each. Crude protein intake, egg weight, egg mass and percentage of the albumen show increasing linear response to the levels of crude protein in the diet. Nitrogen balance is not altered by the levels of proteins in the diets.
amino acids; egg; hens; nutritional requirements
