Improving Nutrition Utilization and Meat Quality of Broiler Chickens Through Solid-State Fermentation of Agricultural By-Products by Aureobasidium Pullulans

ABSTRACT

A 35 d trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of co-fermented agricultural by-products, soybean hulls and Pleurotus eryngii stalk residue (PESR), with Aureobasidium pullulans on nutrients digestibility and meat quality in broilers fed on conventional corn-soybean meal basal diet. A total of 400 1-d-old Ross broilers were allotted to 4 dietary treatments with 4 replicate pens (25 birds per pen). Birds were fed the corn-soybean meal diets supplemented with 0% (CON), 0.5% fermented soybean hulls (0.5% FSBH), 0.5% fermented soybean hulls partially replaced with PESR (0.5% FSHP) and 1.0% FSHP. The broilers fed on the diet that contained fermented products had higher total tract apparent digestibility for hemicellulose than those on CON (p 0.05). Meanwhile, the birds fed on 0.5% FSHP also showed the lightest duodenum and jejunum weight among all groups. Compared with the CON, the inclusion of 1.0% FSHP in the diet significantly decreased ammonia N concentration in cecum followed by 0.5% FSHP and subsequent 0.5% FSBH group. Dietary supplementation of fermented products significantly improved WHC and increased protein content in meat as compared with the CON. Moreover, the fat content in meat decreased in the broilers that received 0.5% FSBH and 1.0% FSHP. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of co-fermented agricultural by-products, PESR and soybean meal, could improve the digestibility of hemicellulose and decrease the cecal ammonia N concentration; moreover, the increased WHC and protein level as well as decreased fat content in meat suggested the promising utilization of these low-cost materials as broiler feed additives.