NUTRIENT COMPOSITION, IN VITRO GAS AND METHANE PRODUCTION OF Pleurotus SPECIES TREATED CROP RESIDUES FOR THEIR USE IN RUMINANT DIETS

Abstract

A promising approach for the provision of high-quality supplementary feed for dry season ruminant feeding is the use of fungal-treated crop residues. This current study, therefore, used 3 Pleurotus species (P. ostreatus -PO, P. florida – PF, and P. sajor-caju- PS) to treat 4 crop residues (cowpea chaff - CC, millet chaff - MC, groundnut haulm - GH, and maize stover -MST) over 20 days at room temperature. The treated residues were afterward dried and sub-samples were taken for chemical composition (Dry matter – DM, crude protein – CP, Neutral detergent fibre – NDF, and Acid detergent fibre – ADF) determination and in vitro studies (in vitro gas and methane gas production). The Pleurotus species improved the crop residues nutrient composition through increased CP values and decreased NDF and ADF values but the species varied in their residues preference. PO greatly improved GH and CC; PS greatly improved MC; and PF greatly improved MST. The Pleurotus species improved the in vitro gas production of millet chaff (57 – 107 ml/ g DM – PF; 123 ml/ g DM – PS; and 130 ml/ g DM – PO) only. The highest in vitro gas production in PO-treated MC was complemented with comparable methane gas production (3.28 – 5.19 ml/ g DM) and percentage methane in total gas production (7 – 7%) to intact residue at 72h of incubation. It can be concluded that PO-treated millet chaff can be used as improved supplementary dry season feed for better ruminant production.