CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND KINETICS OF RUMINAL FERMENTATION OF COMPOSITE CASHEW NUTSHELL

Abstract

In Nigeria, the major constraint to livestock production is the scarcity of quality and insufficient supply of feed throughout the year. A non-conventional feedstuff could ameliorate the limitation. Therefore, this study was carried out to evaluate the chemical composition and in vitro fermentation characteristics of differently treated composite cashew nut shell (CNS). The different treatment comprised raw CNS, urea, lye, microbial, boiled, roasted and poultry litter. The samples were incubated for 24 hours. The chemical composition showed that there was significant difference (p < 0.05) and the dry matter (DM) ranged from 82.24% (urea treated) to 89.35% (poultry litter treated) while the crude protein (CP) varied from 6.62% (raw) to 11.98% (lye treated). The in vitro potential gas production and degradability showed that lye treated CNS produced the highest (3.00mL) gas volume at 6 hour and also recorded the highest gas volume throughout the incubation period while the highest volume of methane gas (3.88mL) was obtained in raw CNS, the least value was observed in boiled treatment. The organic matter digestibility (OMD) (34.63%), short chain fatty acid (SCFA) (0.16 um), and metabolizable energy (ME) (4.13 Kcal/g) obtained in this study were all highest in lye treated CNS and were least (27.46%), (0.08 um) (3.38 Kcal/g) in raw CNS respectively. It can be concluded from the results of this study that cashew nut shell, if lye treated can be included in the ration of ruminants.