Total bacteria, total fungus, and water activity content of multinutrient block with green betle leaf levels added as feed supplements for goat

Abstract

Multinutrient blocks (MNB) have high water content (24.46%) which during storage can damage and reduce its quality. High water content can trigger the growth of bacteria and fungus, so it’s necessary to add natural ingredients such as green betle leaf which functions as anti-bacterial and anti-fungus. This study aims to evaluate the effect of green betle leaf juice addition on total bacteria, total fungus and water activity in MNB during storage. The research used completely randomized design with level addition of green betle leaf juice specifically at 0% (S0), 3% (S1), and 6% (S2). The results showed that the addition of green betle leaf juice with different levels to the multinutrient blocks during storage had a significant effect (p <0.05) on total bacteria and fungus. The addition of 6% green betle leaf juice to the MNB resulted in the lowest average total bacteria and fungus totalling 4.32 × 104 CFU / g and 4.66 × 104 log cfu / g. Water activity is below 0.6, so that fungus and bacteria in the multinutrient blocks cannot grow. So, it can be stated that multinutrient blocks with the addition of 6% green betle leaf juice can be given safely as feed supplements.