Biodegradation of Rice Husk as Affected by Chemical Composition and In-Vitro Digestibility

Résumé

A study was conducted to evaluate the changes in the chemical composition and the in vitro digestibility of rice husk treated with different fungi: Pleurotus pulmonarius (T₂), Pleurotus sajor caju (T₃) and Pleurotus florida (T₄) while the untreated (T₁) served as the control. The result obtained showed a wide variation in the proximate composition (%) with crude protein ranging from 2.54(T₁) to 6.56(T₄), crude fiber 14.92(T₄) to 21.01(T₁) and ether extract 2.20(T₁) to 3.01(T₄). The contents of NDF, ADF and ADL decreased significantly (P < 0.05) in the treated samples. The estimated organic matter digestibility (OMD, %) ranged from 40.55(T₁) to 50.26(T₄) and metabolizable energy (MJ/kg DM) range from 14.69(T₄), to 16.89(T₁).From the result obtained in this experiment, fungal treatment enhanced OMD, SCFA, CP and CF contents. This suggests that fungal treatment of rice husk is an effective method of treatment of feed for consumption of ruminants.