THE POTENTIAL OF SWEET ORANGE (CITRUS SINENSIS) PEEL TREATED WITH BOVINE RUMEN FILTRATE FOR LIVESTOCK FEEDING

Abstract

The study investigated the proximate nutrients, anti-nutrients and fibre fractions in sweet orange peel (SOP) biodegraded with bovine rumen filtrate as a natural inoculum, to determine its suitability for feeding livestock. Rumen filtrate (RF) was obtained after adding water to rumen content at v/v ratio 1:1. SOP was divided into 4 batches T1, T2, T3, T4 of equal weight. T1 was poured into polythene bag without RF for 24 hrs, while RF was mixed with T2, T3. T4 in a ratio of 1 RF; 2 SOP, poured into polythene bags and allowed 24, 48 and 72 hrs, respectively for biodegradation. Each biodegraded sweet orange peel (BSOP) treatment was sun-dried to less than 12% moisture, milled, analysed for proximate nutrients, anti-nutrients and fibre fractions. BSOP contained 88.12% - 89.90% DM, 6.83% - 8.48% CP, 2.24% - 2.89% EE, 16.97% - 24.00% CF, 9.42% - 10.62% ash, 56.94% - 61.24% NFE and 2071.57 - 2358.53 kcal/kg ME. Except phytate (0.03 – 0.07%), saponin (0.02 – 0.05%), tannin (0.50 – 0.62%), alkaloid (2.69 -3.42%), flavonoid (1.10 – 3.15%), oxalate (0.020 – 0.03%) which are anti-nutrients, and NDF (25.63 – 32.4%), ADF (22.50 – 28.00%), cellulose (21.00 – 26.74%), hemicellulose (1.13 – 5.35%) and lignin 0.32 – 3.50%) all fibre fractions, varied significantly (P<0.05) across the treatments. Biodegradation of SOP with bovine rumen filtrate improved its feed value especially the proximate nutrients and anti-nutrients for it to be a feed resource in livestock feeding, while the development of a processing method to reduce its NDF and ADF to further enhance its suitability is recommended.