Abstract:
Scarcity and seasonality of supply of cereals (for human and livestock feed) causes fluctuation in quantity, quality and increase in feed cost. This results in poor livestock growth, low reproductive performance and high production cost. Prosopis juliflora pods have been used to mitigate this, but success has been hampered by their high content of anti-nutritive compounds (ANC); tannins, crude fibre (CF) phytic acid and aflatoxins. Fermentation has been reported to reduce ANC concentrations. This study investigated the effects of fermentation technology in enhancement of the pods’ nutritional value for rabbit diets. Mature pods from Marigat, Baringo County were fermented; spontaneously, with cultures of Lactobacillus salivarius (SL), Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC) and a mixture of LS/SC for 24, 48 and 2 hours. Amino acid profile, acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), proximate and ANC analyses of maize, fermented ground mature Prosopis pods (FGMPP) and unfermented ground mature Prosopis pods (UGMPP) were conducted. In a completely randomized design (CRD), a digestibility experiment was conducted using 15 adult bucks. In a randomized complete block design (RCBD) a feeding trial was conducted using 60, 42-week-old growers and a lactation experiment using 15 primiparous does in a CRD. Different statistical softwares were used in data analyses; SPSS for descriptive and inferential statistics; probabilities, quantiles and random sample (PQRS) for randomization and descriptive statistics and SAS for data analysis in experimental designs. Tukey’s HSD was used to separate significant means at (p˂0.05). Except for aflatoxin, all fermentation methods reduced the ANC and improved (p˂0.05) the crude protein (CP) and amino acid profiles. Fermentation and addition of cornstarch affected (p˂0.05) dry matter intake (DMI) and digestibilities of dry matter (DM), CF, CP, ash and ether extract (EE). Grower rabbits offered diet with 30% FGMPP exhibited higher (p˂0.05) average daily gain (ADG), lower mortality, and there was treatment effect (p˂0.05) on blood haematological and metabolite indices. There was no treatment effect (p>0.05) for carcass characteristics except dressing % and caecal pH (p˂0.05). Inclusion of FGMPP and UGMPP had no effect (p>0.05) on overall rating of descriptive sensory attributes of meat. There was economic benefit (p˂0.05) of incorporating 30% FGMPP in grower rabbit diets. There was no treatment effect (p>0.05) on lactation performance. The study recommended the inclusion of 30% FGMPP in diets of grower and lactating rabbits
