Performance, Egg Quality and Nutrient Utilization by Laying Birds Fed Penicillium chrysogenum Degraded Brewer Dried Grain

The sub-Saharan African feed industry is encumbered with competitors for the conventional feed ingredients. The competition most often increases the prices of these ingredients and invariably the cost of animal production. The use of agro industrial by-products after fungal biodegradation can be of help in combating this challenge. This study was carried out to assess the effect of Penicillium chrysogenum degraded brewer`s dried grains (BDG) on the performance, digestibility and egg quality of layers. Degraded and Undegraded brewers dried grains (BDG) were used to formulate the rations for laying birds for 12 (twelve) weeks. A total of two hundred and fifty two (252) laying birds that were thirty (30) weeks old were randomly allocated to the diets. There were seven treatments and treatment 1 was the control with 0% brewer dried grains (BDG) inclusion level. The degraded and the undegraded BDG were used at 3, 5 and 7% inclusion levels. Thirty six (36) birds were allocated to each of the treatments with three (3) replicates at 12 birds each. Penicillium chrysogenum was inoculated on BDG by Solid State Fermentation method for seven days and was used as the degraded sample. The proximate analysis of undegraded BDG was compared with degraded BDG. The Crude protein, ash, ether extract of degraded brewers dried grain rose from 25.67 to 31.57%, 9.87 to 12.45%, and 6.87 to 7.35% respectively while crude fibre reduced from 15.93 to 10.39%. Results on the performance of the birds revealed that there were significant (P<0.05) differences in feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio and hen-day production. Egg quality characteristics also revealed a significant (P<0.05) differences in egg weight and shell thickness. The results showed that Penicillium chrysogenum was able to enhance the feeding value of BDG and this impacted positively on the feed consumption, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio and egg quality characteristics.