Aspergillus flavus Degraded Brewer Dried Grains for Broiler Chicken Diet: Performance and Nutrient Digestibility Parameters

Improvement of agro industrial by-products via microbial biodegradation in order to subside nutritional challenges cannot be over flogged. This study was conducted to investigate the possible improvement in nutritional quality of brewer dried grains (BDG) using Aspergillus flavus as biodegrading agent and the consequent effect of degraded BDG on the performance and nutrient utilization by broiler chickens. Undegraded and degraded BDG was used to compound rations for broiler birds for 8 weeks. The undegraded was used at 7% inclusion level and the degraded was used at 3, 5 and 7%. 150 day old chicks were randomly allocated to 5 treatments. 30 birds were allocated to each treatment with three replicates each. Aspergillus flavus was cultured onto BDG using Solid State Fermentation for a period of 7 days. Chemical analysis of undegraded and degraded BDG showed that biodegradation altered the chemical composition. The crude protein improved from 27.89 to 39.12 g / 100 gDM (28.71%). The ash improved from 4.39 to 6.22 g / 100 gDM (29.42%). The gross energy increased from 4.92 to 7.10 kcal/kg which showed 30.70% improvement. However, the crude fibre and the detergent fibre reduced after fungal biodegradation. The crude fibre reduced from 14.85 to 11.17 g / 100 gDM. At both starter and finisher phases, there were significant (P<0.05) differences in feed intake, weight gained and feed conversion ratio and birds placed on degraded BDG (DBDG) showed better nutrient utilization than ones on undegraded BDG (UBDG). The relative cost benefits (RCB) showed that the chickens on DBDG gave better economic gain than the ones on UBDG treatment.