Nutritional and Toxicological Assessment of White-Rot Fermented Animal Feed

Abstract

The fungal fermented wheat straws as animal feeds have been evaluated for its toxicological and nutritional status in male rats (Holtzman strain). Digestibility of dry matter and other nutrients as well as fiber fractions were found significantly higher (P < 0.05) in straw fermented with either Ganoderma sp. rckk02 (T3) or Crinipellis sp. RCK-1 (T4) than unfermented straw (T1) or straw fermented with Pycnoporus cinnabarinus (T2). The aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2 were either absent or present in permissive levels in T3 and T4 diets and exhibited normal stress enzyme activity in case of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) enzymes whereas, rats fed on T2 diet showed elevated levels of stress enzymes (ALT, AST and LDH activity), 100% high morbidity and 8.3% mortality. This study suggests that Ganoderma sp. rckk02 and Crinipellis sp. RCK-1 are efficient in improving the nutritive value of poor quality straw and do not posses any threat for their subsequent use as ruminant feed.

Middle-redox potential laccase from Ganoderma sp.: its application in improvement of feed for monogastric animals

“…Thirty six weaned male rats (Holtzman strain, n = 36) of uniform body weight and 30–32 day old were procured from Department of Zoology,University of Delhi, Delhi and divided into three (T1, T2 and T3) experimental groups as described earlier5. Each group consisted of three replicates of four rats each in a completely randomized design.…”

“…However, to make use of laccase commercially viable in feed improvement, its production level should be high as well as it should be nontoxic to animals. The critical safety evaluation of the enzymes used for improving animal feed is must and tests involving rat models have been found essential to provide some preliminary indication of possible cellular mutagenicity, potential carcinogenicity and teratogenecity during the developmental stages345. Furthermore, random addition of enzymes to diets without consideration for specific situations, toxicity and substrate targets will only discourage or delay on- farm adoption of enzyme technology6.…”

Double-emulsion technique applied to laccase immobilization on polymeric nanoparticles

“…White-rot fungi are known to be potential producers of ligninolytic enzymes, among them laccases [benzenediol oxygen reductases (EC 1. But, have been scarcely tried for possible application in improving the bioavailability of nutrients and digestibility of animal feed, especially for monogastric diets [7]. The beneficial effects of laccases (besides those of cellulases, xylanases and amylases) on productive parameters and carcass yield of rabbits have been reported [8].…”