Abstract
Cassava peels which is available in large quantity as waste is being considered as a possible replacement for maize in chicken feeds due to the world shortage of cereals. This study examined the safety of collagen and reticulin fibres in the liver and kidney of broiler chicken, when the Aspergillus niger-hydrolyzed cassava peel meal (HCPM) was used as diet carbohydrate. HCPM was used as replacement for maize in chicken feeds at 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100%, respectively and were fed for 42 days. The animals were sacrificed and the liver and kidney were excised and fixed immediately in 10% formol-saline for 48 h. The tissues were processed for paraffin embedding. Sections were cut at 3 microns, dried for 30 min at 60°C and were stained using both Gordon & Sweet and Masson’s Trichrome methods. The result showed the preservation of the reticulin and collagen fibres up to the 50% inclusion of HCPM as replacement for maize. The implication is that; the use of HCPM will make available for human consumption, half of the world maize cereals been consumed by the poultry birds. Key words: Aspergillus niger, cassava peels, cellulolytic enzymes, collagen fibre, reticulin.
Highlights
Cassava, yam, sweet potatoes, cocoyam, and sorghum are important staple foods and they are sources of food for about 200 to 300 million people in tropical areas (FAO, 1986)
The earlier researchers, who have worked on poultry feed formulation were probably not interested in the effects of such new formulation on the connective tissues of the experimental birds
Reticulin fibres were seen to be well preserved with distinct inter-hepatic and arterial wall distribution in Groups A, B and C of the liver tissues. This indifference in the staining and reticulin distributional appearance confirmed the safety of the feed to the reticulin fibres of the liver tissue, at least up to 50% inclusion of hydrolyzed cassava peel meal (HCPM) in the poultry feed mill
Summary
Yam, sweet potatoes, cocoyam, and sorghum are important staple foods and they are sources of food for about 200 to 300 million people in tropical areas (FAO, 1986). Fungi have been shown to have cellulase enzyme which can degrade the fibre in cassava peel thereby making available more energy to monogastrics from hydrolysis of the fibrous materials (Belewu and Banjo, 1999; Raji et al, 1988; Sani et al, 1992) This promotes weight gained and overall improved performance (Atteh, 2000; Abdulrashid et al, 2007). Reticular fibers usually crosslink to form fine meshwork (reticulin) (Strum et al, 2007) This network acts as a supporting mesh in soft tissues such as liver, bone marrow, and the tissues and organs of the lymphatic system. The current study investigated the effect of fungal hydrolyzed cassava peel as main energy source in broiler chicken feeds on the collagen and reticulin fibres in the liver and kidney of broiler chickens after 42 days of feeding trials
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