Effect of Feeding Fermented Rice Bran by Rumen Liquor on the Growth Performance of Broiler Chickens

Abstract

Background: Broiler feedstuff as Rice bran (RB) is a by-product of rice industry. Using RB in broiler chicken diets is not common, especially in broiler chicken production systems due to limitations like higher content of fiber and lower availability of micronutrients. Fermentation of RB by rumen inoculate would improve the nutritive value and further inclusion of urea as a non-protein nitrogenous substance would increase the microbial population using nitrogen generated from urea. Methods: RB was fermented anaerobically without or with urea (2.0%) by rumen inoculates for 48 hours. Three isonitrogenous (22.75% CP) and isocaloric (3164 kcal/kg) diets contained 7.0% RB, 7.0% fermented RB (FRB) and 7.0% urea (2.0%) added fermented RB (UFRB) formulated. The total number of 90-day old unsexed broiler chicks distributed in 03 groups considering 30 replicate birds in each. Result: True protein content increased in FRB (16.45%) and UFRB (16.85%) in comparison to RB group (16.27%). Final body weight of RB, FRB and UFRB groups 1129, 1152 and 1190 g/bird. Feed intake 1884, 1828 and 1924 g/bird respectively for RB, FRB and UFRB groups. Feed conversion ratio 1.75, 1.66 and 1.69 for RB, FRB and UFRB groups respectively. Dressing Percentage of Carcass yield is higher in UFRB (73%) than in FRB (70%). No mortality occurred in any groups during the experiment. So, it may be concluded that inclusion of fermented rice bran by rumen inoculate increase the performance of broiler but urea (2.0%) added to fermented rice bran by rumen inoculate shows better growth performance and carcass yield of broiler.