Influence of Storage Period on Nutritional and Microbial Quality of Concentrate Jaggery Scum Feed Blocks For Pigs

In most swine diet formulations, ingredients that provide most of the energy usually represent highest cost among all dietary ingredients. Concentrate jaggery scum (CJS) is an agro-industrial by-product mainly fed to pigs and dairy cattle. Present study was undertaken to observe influence of storage period on nutritional and microbial quality of concentrate jaggery scum feed blocks for pigs. Nine hundred feed blocks were prepared by using 50, 60, and 70% concentrate jaggery scum, along with wheat bran and dhuta, and of three different shapes i.e. circular, brick and prill. All the treatment feed blocks were analyzed for nutritional and microbial quality for a storage period of two months. Feed block containing 70% CJS and of prill shaped had highest DM of 85.00±1.73% and feed block containing 60% CJS and of circular shaped had lowest DM of 77.75±0.62%. There was a non-significant difference between different treatments and storage period of CJS feed blocks on CP%, CF%, EE%, TA%, OM%, NFE%, and TC%. Microbial quality was assessed by estimating total bacterial count of feed blocks. Feed block containing 60% CJS and of circular shaped showed highest TBC (7.29±0.011 log10 cfu/ml) and feed block containing 70% CJS and of prill shaped showed lowest TBC (6.88±0.06 log10 cfu/ml). It can be concluded that there was a significant difference in dry matter and total bacterial count between different treatments and storage periods. A declining trend was observed during storage period in dry matter percentage while an increasing trend was observed in total bacterial count within permissible limit and no nutritional change was observed in different concentrate jaggery scum feed blocks during the storage period.