title: Bioprocessing of wheat straw into nutritionally rich and digested cattle feed.
abstract: Wheat straw was fermented by Crinipellis sp. RCK-1, a lignin degrading fungus, under solid state fermentation conditions. The fungus degraded 18.38% lignin at the expense of 10.37% cellulose within 9 days. However, when wheat straw fermented for different duration was evaluated in vitro, the 5 day fungal fermented wheat straw called here "Biotech Feed" was found to possess 36.74% organic matter digestibility (OMD) and 5.38 (MJ/Kg Dry matter) metabolizable energy (ME). The Biotech Feed was also observed to be significantly enriched with essential amino acids and fungal protein by fungal fermentation, eventually increasing its nutritional value. The Biotech Feed upon in vitro analysis showed potential to replace 50% grain from concentrate mixture. Further, the calves fed on Biotech Feed based diets exhibited significantly higher (p<0.05) dry matter intake (DMI: 3.74 Kg/d), dry matter digestibility (DMD: 57.82%), total digestible nutrients (TDN: 54.76%) and comparatively gained 50 g more daily body weight.
authors.affiliation: Lignocellulose Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, University of Delhi South Campus, New Delhi 110021, India.
authors.forename: Bhuvnesh
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shrivastava
authors.affiliation: Lignocellulose Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, University of Delhi South Campus, New Delhi 110021, India.
authors.forename: Kavish Kumar
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.affiliation: Ayurvet Ltd., Sagar Plaza, District Centre, Laxmi Nagar, Delhi 110092, India.
authors.forename: Anup
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kalra
authors.affiliation: Lignocellulose Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, University of Delhi South Campus, New Delhi 110021, India.
authors.forename: Ramesh Chander
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Kuhad
mesh_terms: D000363:Agaricales / Q000254:growth & development*; D000821:Animal Feed / Q000382:microbiology*; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D004063:Digestion; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology*; D005285:Fermentation; D009753:Nutritive Value; D014908:Triticum / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000382:microbiology*