Conversion of energy and protein rich food waste as an alternative feed ingredient in broiler feed formulation.

A series of experiments were performed to find out the impact of food waste on growth attributes and performance of broilers in a tropical climate. Two hundred and fifty-one-day-old broiler chicks were randomly separated into 5 groups, where each group comprised 50 animals. The broilers were fed with five different dietary treatments. Treatment 1 (T1), the diet consisted of food waste ingredients such as sprat heads, fish offal (protein), scraped coconut, and swill cooked rice as energy supplements; dietary treatment II (T2) diet was formulated with protein rich food waste; treatment III (T3) diet formulated with energy-rich food waste; treatment IV (T4) without any food waste materials, but a diet formulated with commercially available feed ingredients; and treatment V (T5), a 100% commercially-available broiler diet. Total feed intake per week and total weight gain were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in the commercial diet (T5) contrary to the formulated diets. The highest feed conversion ratio (FCR) was recorded in T3. The average dressing percentage was not significantly different (p > 0.05) in T1, T3, and T5. Average DM % in litter and DM % in feces were higher in T5, but average nitrogen % in droppings were lower in T4 and T5 compared to other diets. The study shows the potential application of food waste as an alternative feed in the broiler industry and its abundance and easy collection makes it a promising feeding regime in urban and suburban areas.

Effects of tropical high tannin non legume and low tannin legume browse mixtures on fermentation parameters and methanogenesis using gas production technique.

In vitro experiments were conducted to evaluate the suitability of several mixtures of high tanniniferous non legumes with low tanniniferous legumes on in vitro gas production (IVGP), dry matter degradation, Ammonia-N, methane production and microbial population. Eight treatments were examined in a randomized complete block design using four non-legumes and two legumes (Carallia integerrima×Leucaena leucocephala (LL) (Trt 1), C. integerrima×Gliricidia sepium (GS) (Trt 2), Aporosa lindeliyana×LL (Trt 3), A. lindeliyana×GS (Trt 4), Ceiba perntandra×LL (Trt 5), C. perntandra×GS (Trt 6), Artocarpus heterophyllus×LL (Trt 7), A. heterophyllus×GS (Trt 8). The condensed tannin (CT) content of non legumes ranged from 6.2% (Carallia integerrima) to 4.9% (Ceiba perntandra) while the CT of legumes were 1.58% (Leucaena leucocephala) and 0.78% (Gliricidia sepium). Forage mixtures contained more than 14% of crude protein (CP) while the CT content ranged from 2.8% to 4.0% respectively. Differences (p<0.05) were observed in in vitro gas production (IGVP) within treatments over a 48 h period dominated by C. perntandra×G. sepium (Trt 6). The net gas production (p<0.05) was also high with Trt6 followed by A. heterophyllus×L. leucocephala (Trt 7) and A. heterophyllus×G. sepium (Trt 8). Highest (p>0.05) NH3-N (ml/200 mg DM) production was observed with the A. heterophyllus×G. sepium (Trt 8) mixture which may be attributed with it's highest CP content. The correlation between IVGP and CT was 0.675 while IVGP and CP was 0.610. In vitro dry matter degradation (IVDMD) was highest in Trt 8 as well. Methane production ranged from 2.57 to 4.79 (ml/200 mg DM) to be synonimous with IVGP. A higher bacteria population (p<0.05) was found in C. perntandra×G. sepium (Trt 6) followed by Artocarpus heterophyllus+G. sepium (Trt 8) and the same trend was observed with the protozoa population as well. The results show that supplementing high tannin non leguminous forages by incremental substitution of legume forage increased gas production parameters, NH3-N, IVDMD and microbial population in the fermentation liquid. Methane production was not significantly affected by the presence of CT or different levels of CP in forage mixtures. Among non legumes, Ceiba perntandra and Artocarpus heterophyllus performed better in mixture with L. leucocephala and G. sepium.

In vitro quality assessment of two tropical shrub legumes in relation to their extractable tannins contents.

The in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) of the two leguminous tree fodders Gliricidia sepium and Calliandra calothyrsus which differ in their tannin content was examined by the rumen simulation technique. Extractable condensed tannin (CT) concentrations ranged from 0.57% in G. sepium to 5.05% in C. calothyrsus using the butanol-HCl extraction. On the basis of their respective CT contents, G. sepium was classified as containing traces of CT, whereas C. calothyrsus had medium amounts of CT. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) was added at different concentrations (0, 1.5, 5 and 10 g/100 g plant material substrate) to assess the effect of tannins on IVDMD. The IVDMD was higher for G. sepium (range: 60-65%) than for C. calothyrsus (39.5-53.5%). In vitro gas production and IVDMD increased with increased PEG concentrations especially for C. calothyrsus. A non-significant response to increasing PEG concentrations for IVDMD of G. sepium confirms PEG binding with the tannins. On the basis of these results, it is assumed that G. sepium has a higher nutritive value than C. calothyrsus. Good relationship between PEG binding and the improvement of IVDMD confirms the usefulness of this technique for improving the nutritive value of tanniniferous tropical browses.