Betaine not only promotes growth and resists stress, but also regulates lipid metabolism in the body, improves the intestinal environment, and enhances the immunity of poultry. It can partially replace methionine in feed, reduce feed costs, and alleviate adverse effect caused by high temperature in large scale broiler production.

Betaine contains 3 methyl groups, which can replace methionine to provide methyl groups for poultry, promote protein synthesis, reduce fat deposition, effectively prevent fatty liver, maintain osmotic pressure balance, improve the intestinal environment, have good palatability, and promote broiler feeding.

Betaine has a moderate taste. As an additive, it can increase the palatability of feed, increase animal appetite, and promote poultry intake. Vogt research found that adding 200 mg/kg betaine to chicken feed can increase the body weight and feed conversion rate of broilers by 4% and 2%, respectively. Zhan Xiu'an reported that adding 1,000 mg/kg betaine to feed under high temperature environment can significantly increase the feed intake and digestion and absorption efficiency of broilers. Studies by Xu Zirong and others have shown that adding different concentrations of betaine to the diet can significantly increase the feed intake of 1-24 days old Avian broilers and reduce the feed-to-weight ratio. The effect of high-concentration betaine on feed intake is better than that of low-concentration betaine, in which 2 000 mg/kg Betaine has the most obvious effect.

In a high temperature environment, adding 0.1% betaine to the feed can adjust the fat metabolism of broilers, reduce the rate of abdominal fat, and inhibit the deposition of subcutaneous fat. Research by Xu Zirong and Zhan Xiuan showed that the addition of betaine to the diet significantly changed the carcass composition and meat quality of broilers, the breast muscle rate was significantly increased, and the abdominal fat rate was significantly reduced. In addition, betaine can also enhance the hormone-sensitive lipase activity in fat, inhibit fatty acid synthase, lipoprotein lipase and malate dehydrogenase activity, and ultimately inhibit fat synthesis and reduce fat deposition in the body.