Abstract
In view of rising cost of conventional broiler chicken feeds in Nigeria, the value of fermented spent sorghum grains (FSSG) as alternative feed for broiler chickens was evaluated. Sterilized, spent sorghum grains were fermented for 21 days at 25 ± 2oC using a consortium of Aspergillus niger, Chaetomium globosum and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Five test diets were formulated by supplementing commercial chicken broiler feed (CBD) with the FSSG at 0, 5, 10, 15, and 100% levels. Proximate contents of the diets were determined. A 28-day Feeding experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design in which 40 day-old broiler chicks were assigned to the five dietary treatments. Eight birds were allocated to each treatment with two replicates of 4 birds each. Parameters monitored included feed intake, weight gain, feed efficiency ratio (FER) and protein efficiency ratio (PER). Higher amounts of FSSG in the diets resulted in significantly higher (P.05) than the value (2.60) recorded for CBD. The findings showed that fermented spent sorghum grains, when used solely, cannot serve as alternative feed for broiler chickens. However, conventional chicken feed could be supplemented with fermented spent sorghum grains at 5% level without negative effects on broiler performance.
Highlights
The cost of major conventional feedstuffs such as maize and soya bean has continued to rise in Nigeria, making the cost of finished feeds to be prohibitive
Increases in the amount of fermented grains in the diets led to decreases in the content of nitrogen free extract (NFE) which ranged from 18-54.59% with 100% fermented spent sorghum grains (FSSG) having the lowest value and chicken broiler feed (CBD) having the highest
Spent sorghum grains fermented with a consortium of Aspergillus niger, Trichoderma viride, and Chaetomium globosum is not a good quality feed for broiler chickens when used solely
Summary
The cost of major conventional feedstuffs such as maize and soya bean has continued to rise in Nigeria, making the cost of finished feeds to be prohibitive. In view of this rising cost, the sole use of these conventional feed ingredients for intensive animal production is no longer justifiable. Crop residues and agro industrial byproducts abound in Nigeria [2] Some of these wastes are left underutilized, and become sources of environmental pollution. Those that are utilized do not have their full potentials harnessed [3]. These wastes have been explored as possible alternatives to conventional feedstuffs
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