Abul Hasnat*, Asim K. Pal and Narottam P. Sahu
In vitro protein digestibility study of electron beam irradiated (10KGy) unconventional feed ingredients such as cotton seed cake, rubber seed cake and soybean meal and complete diets were conducted on Labeo rohita and Clarius batracus. Complete diet without irradiation served as control. Gut crude enzyme extracted from the experimental species were used to assay in vitro protein digestibility. Electron beam irradiated diet showed significant reduction of phytic acid and tannin content at 10 KGy radiation. All the irradiated ingredients perform higher values of digestibility than the nonirradiated ingredients on both the species. The apparent in vitro digestibility of protein in irradiaited diet were 85.2%, 91% respectively for Labeo rohita and Clarius batracus which were significantly higher than the control diet. A feeding trial was conducted for 45 days to study growth, survival of Labeo rohita fingerlings fed with electron beam irradiated diets. Significantly higher weight gain, SGR and better FCR (1.55) were observed for fingerlings fed with electron beam irradiated diet. The study concludes that the better growth and FCR in irradiated diet fed group may be due to increased bioavailability of protein by electron beam irradiation
