Abstract
Theobromine exerts deleterious effects on animal physiology. Removal of theobromine from the millions of metric tons of cocoa pod husks (CPH) discarded annually could allow for the production of cheap, CPH-based animal feed. The aim of this study was to evaluate safety and nutritional value of bio-detheobrominated CPH in Sprague–Dawley rats. Theobromine was removed from CPH by treatment with an isolate of Talaromyces verruculosus (TvTD). Substituted feeds containing CPH were formulated by replacing 30% or 50% of the maize content of regular rat feed with TvTD-treated or inactivated TvTD-treated CPH. Feeding groups included control groups without or with theobromine administration. Effects of the feed formulations on water and feed intake, weight gain, blood biochemistry and organ-specific toxicity were assessed. Rats ingesting theobromine in inactivated TvTD-treated CPH-based diet or by oral gavage variably exhibited marked deleterious effects, mainly evident in body weight, thymus wet weight and tissue histology. In contrast, substitution with TvTD-treated CPH caused significant increase in body weight. Substitution at 30% did not cause mortality or organ-specific toxicity with reference to the testes, kidneys, spleen or liver, unlike substitution at 50%. The data demonstrate that detheobrominated CPH may safely replace up to 30% of maize in animal feed formulations.
Highlights
Theobromine exerts deleterious effects on animal physiology
high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis of aqueous extracts of cocoa pod husks (CPH) samples indicated that unlike inactivated TvTD-treated CPH which had a peak for theobromine at retention time of 8.232 min, peaks for theobromine were not detected in sterilized or unsterilized TvTD-treated samples (Fig. 1)
For the control group on base diet (CF), 30% TvTD-treated (TC-30) and 30% inactivated TvTD-treated (ITC-30) CPH substitution groups, no animals died during the period of the study
Summary
Theobromine exerts deleterious effects on animal physiology. Removal of theobromine from the millions of metric tons of cocoa pod husks (CPH) discarded annually could allow for the production of cheap, CPH-based animal feed. It has been suggested that in Ghana, for example, soaring prices of poultry feed were the biggest cost factor limiting production and increasing poultry prices on the m arket[3]. This underscores the need for work toward the use of agro wastes in animal feed compositions for poultry and livestock. In addition to its high fiber content, higher inclusion levels and widespread use of CPH in animal feed has been limited by a number of its constituent compounds, principally theobromine, which has shown detrimental effects such as delayed growth, atrophy of organs and lethality in experimental animals including rats[9,10,11,12].
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