ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of
biomodification with the fungi Trichoderma harzianum on the chemical
composition as well as the in vitro gas production characteristics of melon
seed husk (MH) with or without supplementation with wheat bran (WB). Wheat bran
supplemented melon seed husk (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) were inoculated with
Trichoderma harzianum for 21 days and later dried and milled for chemical
analysis and in vitro gas fermentation study. The result showed that
supplementation in general was effective in increasing significantly (P <
0.05) the crude protein and decreasing the cell wall fraction. The treatment
with Trichoderma harzianum increased the CP from 5.25%, 7.88%, 10.00%, 13.13%,
14.90% for the untreated to 5.70%, 8.32%, 10.95%, 14.90% and 16.20% in the
treated form of 0WB:100MH, 25WB:75MH, 50WB:50MH, 75WB:25MH, 100WB:0MH
respectively. Although only 75WB:25MH was significantly different (P <
0.05). The value for NDF of the treated ranged from 49.00% for 100WB:0MH to
82.50% for 0WB:100MH. Although only 75WB:25MH and 100WB:0MH had significant
decreases (P < 0.05). The value for ADF of the treated ranged from 7.00% for
100WB:0MH to 60.00% for 0WB:100MH and only the decrease of 25WB:75MH was not
significant (P > 0.05). The values for hemicelluloses for the treated ranged
from 22.50% for 0WB:100MH to 42.00% for 100WB:0MH with only 100WB:0MH having a
significant decrease (P < 0.05). Gas volume, DMD, OMD, SCFA were
significantly (P < 0.05) higher in the untreated sample values when compared
to the treated values. This result suggest that Trichoderma harzianum appears
to be a weak fungi in the treatment of agricultural waste to enhance the
nutritive value and digestibility.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Title page————ii
Abstract————iii
Acknowledgement———–iv
Certification————v
Dedication————vi
Table of contents———–vii
List of tables————xi
List of figures————xii
List of plates ————xiii
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction ———–1
1.1 Research Objectives ———-3
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 Literature Review ———-4
2.1 History of In Vitro Gas Production ——–4
2.2 Factors That Potentially Affect Gas Production Profiles
(GPP)—-5
2.2.1 Effect of Sample Size and Preparation ——-5
2.2.2 Effect of Agitation of the Medium ——–6
2.2.3 Effect of Changes in Atmospheric Pressure——-7
2.2.4 Effect of Venting Gas During the Incubation ——8
2.2.5 Effect of Inoculum ———8
2.2.6 Use of Blanks ———-9
2.2.7 Effect of Medium Composition ——–9
2.2.8 Effect of Apparatus ———10
2.3 Melon (Colocynthis citrullus) ——–10
2.4 Melon Seed Husk ———-11
2.5 Biomodification of Agricultural Waste with Mushrooms—–11
2.6 Effect of Biomodification of Melon Seed Husk with
Mushrooms—-12
2.7 Effect of Biomodification of other Agricultural Waste
with Mushrooms—13
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 Materials and Methods ———18
3.1 Collection of Samples ———18
3.2 Preparation for Inoculation ——–18
3.2.1 Cleaning of the Bottles ———18
3.2.2 Supplementation ———-19
3.2.3 Filling of the Bottles ———19
3.3 The Fungi and its Source ———21
3.4 Inoculation ———–22
3.5 Chemical Analysis ———-23
3.5.1 Dry Matter Determination ———23
3.5.2 Ash and Organic Matter Determination ——-24
3.5.3 Crude Protein Determination ——–24
3.6 Cell Wall Fraction Determination (NDF, ADF,
HEMICELLULOSE) —25
3.7 In Vitro Gas Fermentation Study ——–26
Statistical Analysis ———30
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 Results ———–31
4.1 Chemical Composition of Trichoderma harzianum treated
Melon Seed Husk with or without supplementation with wheat bran ——31
4.2 In vitro Gas production at different hours of Incubation
—-37
4.3 Post in vitro Gas production parameter For Trichoderma
harzianum Treated Melon seed husk with or without supplementation with wheat
bran—-41
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 Discussion ———–46
5.1 Chemical composition of Trichoderma harzianum Treated Melon
seed husk with or without supplementation with wheat bran ——46
5.2 In vitro Gas production at Different hours of incubation
for Trichoderma harzianum Treated Melon seed husk with or without
supplementation with wheat bran–47
5.3 Post in vitro Gas production parameters for Trichoderma
harzianum Treated Melon seed husk with or without Supplementation with wheat
bran —-49
CHAPTER SIX
6.0 Conclusion and Recommendation ——–51
References
LIST OF TABLES
Page Table 3.1: Experimental Treatments and their
Description —– 19
Table 3.2: Experimental Treatments and the Quantity required
for Four Bottles — 20
Table 4.1: The Dry Matter (DM), Crude Protein (CP), Ash and
Organic Matter (OM)
of Trichoderma harzianum treated Melon Seed Husk with or
without Supplementation with Wheat Bran—— 32
Table 4.2: The cell wall Fraction of Trichoderma harzianum
treated Melon Seed
Husk with or without Supplementation with Wheat Bran—- 35
Table 4.3: The In Vitro Gas Production at Different Hours of
Incubation for
Trichoderma harzianum treated Melon Seed Husk with or
without
Supplementation with Wheat Bran——- 39
Table 4.4: Post In Vitro Gas Production Parameters for
Trichoderma harzianum
treated Melon Seed Husk with or without Supplementation with
Wheat Bran ———- 43
LIST OF FIGURES
Pages
Figure 4.1: The Dry Matter Content of Treated and Untreated
Samples —33
Figure 4.2: The Crude Protein Content of Treated and
Untreated Samples—33
Figure 4.3: The Ash Content of Treated and Untreated
Samples—-34
Figure 4.4: The Organic Matter Content of Treated and
Untreated Samples—34
Figure 4.5: The NDF Content of Treated And Untreated
Samples—-35
Figure 4.6: The ADF Content of Treated and Untreated
Samples—-36
Figure 4.7: The Hemicellulose Content of Treated and
Untreated Samples—36
Figure 4.8: The Volume of Gas Produced by the Treated
Samples—-40
Figure 4.9: The Volume of Gas Produced by the Untreated
Samples —-40
Figure 4.10: The Volume of Gas Produced by the Treated and
Untreated Samples –41
Figure 4.11: The Volume of Methane Produced by the Treated
and Untreated Samples -44
Figure 4.12: The DMD of Treated and Untreated Samples —–44
Figure 4.13: The OMD of treated and untreated samples—–45
Figure 4.14: The SCFA of treated and untreated samples—–45
LIST OF PLATES
Page
Plate 3.1: Melon Seed Husk and Wheat Bran——- 18
Plate 3.2: Soaking of Samples in Water for 24 Hours——20
Plate 3.3: Trichoderma harzianum Maintained on a Plate —–21
Plate 3.4: Inoculated samples in the bottles ——-22
Plate 3.5: Trichoderma harzianum treated samples showing
varying degree
of ramification before harvest ——-23
Plate 3.6: Collection of Rumen Liquor——–27
Plate 3.7: Filteration of rumen liquor with cheese cloth
—–28
Plate 3.8: Syringes in the Incubator——–28
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The major constraint to livestock production in Nigeria is
the scarcity of quality and sufficient supply of feed throughout the year. This
is more so because of the competition between man and livestock for the
available food grains. Added to this is the increasing population at a very
high rate, especially in developing countries like Nigeria. With the increasing
demand for livestock products in the world economy and shrinking land area,
future hope of feeding the nations and safeguarding their food security will
depend on their better utilization of the non-conventional feed resources which
cannot be used as food for human (Makkar, 2000).
Agricultural wastes and by-products have been used extremely
in ruminant nutrition in many parts of the world as substitute for concentrate
feeds which are usually very expensive in the developing countries (Akinfemi,
2010a). In Nigeria, there is a wide gap between animal requirement and the
available feedstuff. Although a huge tonnage of agriculture waste and
by-products are produced annually in Nigeria, only a few fraction are used to
feed ruminants while the largest proportion are burnt or discarded leading to
environmental pollution and health hazards (Akinfemi, 2010a).
Ruminants are endowed with the ability to convert low
quality feed into high quality protein and utilize feeds from land not suitable
for cultivation of crop, but however, the utilization of these low quality crop
residues are hampered by their low protein content, fibre digestibility,
vitamins and minerals. These materials considered as waste could be recycled by
environmental friendly methods into ruminant feed by physical, chemical and
biological methods. The possibility of biological treatment of agricultural
waste and by products has a great potential as an alternative to the use of
expensive chemical methods (Abd-Allah, 2007).
The nutritive value of a ruminant feed is determined by the
concentration of its chemical components, as well as extent of digestion.
Determining the digestibility of feeds in vivo is laborious, expensive,
requiring large amount of time and is largely unsuitable for single feedstuff
thereby making it unsuitable for routine feed evaluation (Getachew et al.,
2004). Consequently in vitro gas production techniques were developed to
predict fermentation of ruminant feedstuff. It is a laboratory estimation of
degraded feeds which are important in livestock nutrition (Ajayi and Babayemi,
2008). It is a method reproducible and parameters obtained correlate well with
in vivo method (Ajayi and Babayemi, 2008). A feedstuff incubated with buffered
rumen liquor and gas produced is measured as an indirect indicator of
fermentation kinetics (Rymer et al., 2005). It is first degraded and the
resulting fraction may either be fermented to produce gas, fermentation acids
or incorporated into microbial biomass. When combined with measures of
degradation, gas production techniques provides a measure of the proportion of
feed that is fermented as opposed to that which is partitioned to microbial
growth (Rymer et al., 2005). The principle of determining potential rumen
degradability/fermentability of a feed by measuring gas produced from a batch
culture was first developed by McBee (1953) and Hungate (1966).
1.1 Research Objectives
The study of the effect of biomodification with Trichoderma
harzianum on the chemical composition and in vitro gas production
characteristics of sole and supplemented melon seed husk has been designed with
the following objectives.
To determine the effects of biomodification with Trichoderma
harzianum on the chemical composition of supplemented and unsupplemented melon
seed husk
To investigate the effects of biomodification with
Trichoderma harzianum on the in vitro gas production characteristics of melon
seed husk with or without supplements.
To measure the short chain fatty acid (SCFA) production
potential of biomodified melon seed husk with or without supplement.