The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of soybean meals (SBM) from USA, Brazil (BRA), and Argentina (ARG) on the apparent ileal digestibility of the amino acids (AA). Five hundred day-old broilers were allocated to nine treatments comparing SBM samples from three different origins, USA (n = 3), Brazil (BRA; n = 3), and Argentina (ARG; n = 3). The SBM samples used were collected by trained personnel at the discharge of the cargos from the different countries. Each treatment was replicated ten times and the experimental unit was a cage with five broilers. Birds were fed a commercial corn-soybean meal diet from 1 to 18 days of age in pellet form and then, their corresponding experimental diets in mash form. The experimental diets consisted of a nitrogen free base composed of corn starch, dextrose, soybean oil, minerals, and solka-floc, and the test SBM.

Results of this experiment found the apparent ideal digestibility of all SBMs, regardless of origin, were similar. The digestibility’s of dry matter, crude protein, and of most amino acids (Lysine, Methionine, and Threonine) was higher for the USA meals compared to the South American meals, although the differences were not significant.