Apparent fecal retention of nutrients in fattening chickens consuming fermented and unfermented integral lablab purpureus (dolicho) fodder flour in feed portions

Introduction

Lablab purpureus (dolicho) is a legume with good agronomic behavior for the production of fodder, when sowing in the month of July, under the conditions of Cuba is made. Lablab purpureus possesses high protein, ethereal extract and pulp content (15.11, 2.07 and 31.42%, respectively) (Díaz et al., 2002), which makes it attractive for its inclusion in the diets of birds. On the other hand, it has the disadvantage of high fiber content (neutral detergent fiber (NDF): 71.78% and acid detergent fiber (ADF): 49.92) (Savón et al., 2004).

Valiño et al. (2002) have suggested that it is possible to improve the efficiency of utilization of highly fiber content food by increasing digestion of non-starch polysaccharides by inoculation of celulolitic fungi that allow dissociation of the cellulose-lignin complex and reducing the lignin in such a way that the fiber surface area is increased, as well as remove other factors impeding its digestion. This will help achieve more appropriate formulations and will result in improved productive performance.

That is why the objective of this work was to assess the apparent fecal retention of nutrients in fattening chickens consuming fermented and unfermented integral Lablab purpureus (dolicho) fodder flour in diet.

Materials & Methods
Animals and Diets

32 male fattening chickens (hybrid HE₂₁) of ± 822 g average weight; and 18 days old were used. They were housed randomly in individual metabolism cages of galvanized wire; cage dimensions were 40 x 40 x 40 cm. During the entire experimental period, animals had free access to water and food.

Experimental treatments consisted of four experimental diets for growing and finishing, according to the requirements of the NRC (1994):

I. Control (corn-soy) replacement of corn and soybeans by 10% of:

II. Integral Lablab purpurus fodder flour

III. Integral Lablab purpurus fodder flour fermented with the M5-2 strain in the portion.

IV. Integral Lablab purpurus fodder flour fermented with the 137 MCX-1 strain in the portion.

Preparation of the integral Lablab purpurus fodder flour

Preparation was done following the procedure described by Díaz et al. (2004)

Preparation of the integral fermented Lablab purpurus fodder flours

Substrate:Lablab purpureus (Dolicho) integral fodder flour was used for fermentation.

Microorganisms and inoculum: The mutant lignocellulotic Trichoderma viride M5-2 and Trichoderma viride 137 MCX-1 strains, belonging to the Bank of strains of the Biophysiology Department of the Institute of Animal Science were used.

Preparation of the inoculum: Spore suspensions were prepared by dragging the microorganisms, which had been previously planted in spots of malta agar with chloramphenicol (0.01%).

Fermentation process: Fermentation was performed in 1L jars roux with 60 g of substrate each and 70% humidity. For the fermentation, no added urea or other nutrients were used; only nutrients from natural material were used. 1 cm³ of the inoculum was inoculated in the substrate. The mixture was homogenized and the bottles were placed in an incubator at 30° C for 72 hours. Observations were made every 24 hours to record the growth of the strains. After the process was over, they were pulled out of the bottle and dried on a stove at 60 ° C for 48 hours.

Experimental Procedure

For 7 Days birds adapted to the cages and to the consumption of diets; during this period they had food and water ad libitum.

Subsequently, during four days, food was offered at a rate of 200 g daily, distributed in two servings: Morning and evening. Rejection was recorded in order to calculate the consumption of food. In addition to this, feces from individual animals were collected in a quantitative manner and the dry matter (DM) content thereof was determined during four days. Once the sampling of biological materials was finished, a mixture of the excreta was made by taking an aliquot of 10% of the feces, which was kept frozen at - 20° C until analysis.

Chemical analysis

After the excreta had been dried in the oven at 60 ° C and crushed in a mill to 1 mm particle size, the DM, crude protein (CP) contents thereof were determined, following the methodology described by AOAC (1995).

The neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), hemicellulose, lignin and cellulose contents were determined according to (Goering & Van Soest, 1970).

These determinations were also made in the feed.

Apparent retention of nutrients:

The apparent fecal retention of the following nutrients was determined:

Statistical methods

A completely randomized design with four treatments was used; it consisted of the experimental diets and eight repetitions per animal. The INFOSTAT computerized statistical package was used for the analysis of the results (Balzarini et al., 2001) version 5.1 on Windows XP. The average values were compared using the Duncan Test (1955) where necessary.

Results and Discussion

Table 1 shows apparent fecal retention of nutrients in fattening chickens consuming fermented and unfermented integral lablab puprureus (dolicho) fodder flour in diet. A decrease in DM and OM was observed in all treatments vs. control (P<0.001). This is consistent with the known depressive effect of any fibrous source on the digestibility of these portions.

Table 1. Apparent Fecal retention of nutrients in fattening chickens consuming fermented and unfermented integral Lablab purpureus (dolicho) fodder flour in diet

Retention (%)	I	II	III	IV	E.E ±
DM	77.90^a	72.04^b	69.15^b	69.46^b	1.38***
N	64.56^a	55.32^b	54.89^b	59.23^ab	2.82*
OM	81.53^a	76.22^b	73.78^b	73.92^b	1.17***

^{a, b Different letters in the same row differ significantly (P < 0.05) (Duncan, 1955). *P<0.05, *** P<0.001}

There were differences between control and the treatments that included integral Lablab purpurus fermented with the M5-2 strain in the apparent nitrogen retention (P<0.05) and values were low for the latter (Table 1). Savón et al. (2007) reported the presence of tannins in moderate concentrations in the integral Lablab purpurus fodder; which is one of the factors that could lead to the decline in this indicator. According to Galindo et al. (2008), one of the main features of proteins in legumes is their ability to dock with the tannins and form indigestible complexes. The anti-nutritional effect of the phenolic compounds is based on the formation of insoluble complexes which are resistant to enzymatic digestion or in the interaction of these with digestive enzymes, which interferes with the digestibility of substrates present in the diet (Díaz, 2009) and causes its direct passage to the feces (Jamroz et al., 2009).

Table 2. Apparent fecal retention of the fiber portion in fattening chickens consuming fermented and unfermented integral Lablab purpureus (dolicho) fodder flour in diet

Retention (%)	I	II	III	IV	E.E ±
NDF	75.87^a	71.19^ab	67.81^b	67.16^b	2.00*
ADF	42.01^a	19.03^b	19.01^b	20.75^b	3.31***
Cellulose	48.72^a	22.12^b	16.38^b	22.79^b	4.12***
Hemicellulose	86.64	86.24	85.25	82.50	2.34

^{a, b Different letters in the same row differ significantly (P < 0.05) (Duncan, 1955). *P<0.05, *** P<0.001}

The apparent fecal retention of the fibrous portion showed differences for all the indicators except for hemicellulose (Table 2). Chickens used fibrous food portions with some efficiency, which is consistent with Duke (1997) as fattening chicken, after a process of adaptation to the tenors of fiber, can get to digest part of the this fiber.

With the presence of Lablab purpurus fermented with both strains apparent fecal impaction of NDF decreased vs. control (P<0.05) (Table 2). ADF and cellulose decreased with treatments which included integral fermented and unfermented Lablab purpurus flour fodder, compared to the control (P<0.001). This result could be due to the chemical composition and physical nature of the fiber in these flours. According to Renteria-Flores et al. (2008) IDF consumption limits the microbial utilization of fiber, increases the fecal mass and accelerates the speed of intestinal passage, and thus contributes to the minor digestive use of the fiber portion by the animal.

Conclusions

The obtained results permit concluding that the addition of fermented and unfermented integral Lablab purpureus (dolicho) fodder flour in diet decreases the apparent fecal retention of the examined nutrients in fattening chickens.

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