Abstract
ABSTRACTThe present research aims to investigate the effect of Pleurotus florida fungi cultivation on chemical composition, gas production characteristics, organic matter digestibility (OMD), metabolizable energy (ME), net energy lactation (NEL) and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) of some agro by-products (rice straw, wheat straw, barley straw, soybean straw, canola straw, pea straw and rice husk). Dry matter, organic matter and neutral detergent fibre were significantly decreased upon with fungi application in all treatments (p < 0.01). Fungal treatment did not cause significant difference in the amount of acid detergent fibre (ADF) in soybean straw, canola straw, pea straw and rice husk (p > 0.05), but significantly decreased ADF in rice straw, wheat straw and barley straw (p < 0.05). In experimental treatments, fungi cultivation did not vary significantly in acid detergent lignin and ether extract content (p > 0.05). Processing significantly increased ash and crude protein in all treatments (p < 0.01). The amount of gas production was not significantly affected by fungi cultivation in wheat straw, soybean straw, canola straw and rice husk; however, it was significantly increased upon processing in rice straw, barley straw and pea straw (p < 0.05). The amount of OMD in rice husk was not changed significantly, but processing significantly increased OMD in other treatments (p < 0.05). Fungi cultivation significantly improved ME in all treatments (p < 0.05). The amounts of NEL and SCFA were significantly increased with treatment by fungi (except rice husk) in all substrate (p < 0.01). The results of this study generally indicated that nutritive value of agro by-products was improved upon fungal treatment.
Highlights
The high cost of animal feed in semi-arid and arid countries is a major problem that limits livestock production
Neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL) contents were measured by Fiber-Tec system (Van soest et al 1991)
SSF lowered DM and OM content of pea straw more than other substrates
Summary
The high cost of animal feed in semi-arid and arid countries is a major problem that limits livestock production. Using agro by-products as alternative feed resources is a reasonable strategy in low-input systems (Dayani et al.2012). Crop residues are a large potential energy source for ruminants, but they are characterized with very poor intrinsic feeding value, because of low digestible dry matter and protein content. The rumen microorganisms are able to exude enzymes that have potential to directly hydrolyse cellulose and hemicelluloses in the rumen 2011), but the presence of lignin in the complex network that is formed by cellulose and hemicelluloses reduces their digestibility because of lacking lignin-degrading activity in the rumen (Zadrazil 1985; Otjen et al 1987; Falcon et al.1995). In spite of advantages of these methods, they are not cost-effective, environmentally friendly and require application of state-of-the-art technology
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