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Sudan Journal of Agricultural Research

Effects of autoclaving, supplementation or imbibition with NaCO₃ on the nutritive value of guar meal for growing broiler chickens

A. E. Ahmed and H. A. Hussein

Abstract:

Five isonitrogenous (213 g/kg diet) and isoenergetic (13.06 MJ/kg diet) diets, one containing groundnut cake at a level of 160 g/kg and in the other 4 diets, the groundnut cake was replaced by guar meal at the same level, were fed to growing broiler chicken for 4 weeks. The guar meal-containing diets were fed raw, autoclaved at 110оC for 30 min, supplemented with methionine and lysine or imbibed with 0.5% solution of NaCO3. All the treatments significantly (P<0.05) improved the guar meal feeding value, over the raw, in terms of gain in live-weight and feed conversion efficiency. Birds that received the raw, autoclaved, supplemented and imbibed diets achieved live-weights of 0.64, 0.76, 0.78 and 0.87-fold, respectively compared to those fed on groundnut cake. Among the guar meal-containing diets the best production values were recorded for birds given the imbibed guar meal. Inclusion of raw guar significantly (P<0.05) inhibited the activity of try sin (EC 3.1.21.4) in the lumen of small intestine, whereas that of α-amylase (EC 3.2.1.1) was not Both supplementation and imbibition improved the activity of trypsin. It was concluded that more efficient methods of processing and may be proper supplementation of the guar meal are required before it satisfactorily replaces oil-seeds cakes in broiler diets.

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Sudan Journal of Agricultural Research Vol. 4(2004) PP. 69-75