Feeding Value of Coconut Flour either Fermented with Aspergillus nigerorSaccharomyces cerevisiae

Fermentation has long been applied to increase quality of poultry diets. A study was conducted to investigate the performance of broilers fed the fungi-fermented coconut flour (CF). The CF with or without 0.1% sodium selenite addition was fermented by either Aspergillus niger or Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A total of 120 day old chicks were used in this study. The broiler chicks were kept for three weeks and fed experimental diets (T-1: Control diet; T-2: 1% CF; T-3: 1% fermented CF with A. niger (AN); T-4: 1% fermented CF with S. cerevisiae (SC); T-5: 1% fermented CF + sodium selenite with AN; T-6: 1% fermented CF + sodium selenite with SC). Feed and water were provided ad libitum. The variables observed were: final body weight, feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR). The study used a Completely Randomized Design with 6 treatments and 4 replicates. The results indicate that the use of 1% pure CF did not impair the growth performance. Fermenting CF with A. niger, either with or without sodium selenite addition, negatively affected growth performance of broilers. However, fermenting CF with S. cerevisiae deteriorate body weight, feed intake and FCR. In conclusion, treatments significantly affected body weight, feed intake and FCR.