Changes In Chemical Composition And Bioassay Assessment Of Nutritional Potentials Of Almond Fruit Waste As An Alternative Feedstuff For Livestock

Changes in chemical composition upon processing and bioassay assessment of nutritional potentials of almond fruit waste as an alternative feedstuff were conducted using day-old-cockerels. Proximate analyses revealed that AFW contained valuable nutrients, carbohydrate/dry matter, protein, fat, fiber, mineral matter (ash). The concentration of some of these nutrients increased as the raw AFW was treated. The raw AFW gave on analysis quantitatively high concentrations of the chemical compounds, tannins, hydrocyanides, phytic acid and other un-quantified chemical compounds like oxalates assessed qualitatively. Subjecting raw AFW to lactic fermentation and enzymes treatments reduced the levels of the phytochemicals. Bioassay of the treated and untreated AFW using day-old cockerels and considering performance parameters showed that treated AFW improved feed intake, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio even better than the results obtained on these indices on the reference diet (p 0.05). Untreated AFW elicited misperformance and high mortality of the test birds. It was concluded that the nutritional value of AFW, if could be used as an alternative feedstuff for animals, must be given adequate treatments.

Keywords
Almond fruit waste, nutritional potentials, chemical compounds, cockerels