Nutritional evaluation of Pleurotus harvested cereal straw as ruminant feed – A review

Pleurotus (Oyster Mushroom) has the potential to breakdown the lingo-cellulose complexes of cereal straws, thus making the cellulose constituents available for ruminant feeding. The results of present study are based on the solid state fermentation of these straws (supplemented and unsupplemented) by the Pleurotus spp. The supplementation was done with organic (edible oil and nitrogen) and inorganic sources. The Pleurotus harvested spent straw was found to have higher digestibility of most of the feed nutrients with an increase in the crude protein values as compared to the supplemented and plain straws. Thus, it may be inferred that the spent straws may be incorporated in the feeds of ruminants (cattle and buffaloes) by replacing upto 5096 of the plain straws, besides getting the mushroom for human consumption -thus acting as a dual purpose enterprise.