Effects of Feeding a Dry or Fermented Restaurant Food Residue Mixture on Performance and Blood Profiles of Rats

This study was conducted to compare the effects of feeding dry or fermented (aerobically or anaerobically with or without lactic acid bacteria) restaurant food residue mixture-containing diets on animal performance and blood profiles. Rats were used as the model animal for the simulation of laboratory rodents, rabbit or horse feeding and fed for 4 wks. The results were compared with feeding a dry diet (control) with the same ingredient composition as diets processed by aerobic and anaerobic methods. Feeding all the fermented diets tended to increase (p>0.05) average daily gain of rats resulting in improved (p<0.01) feed efficiency. Apparent digestibility of NDF was increased (p<0.05) by feeding the fermented diets, although digestibilities of DM, OM, CP, and NFC were not affected (p>0.05). Compared with the aerobically fermented diet, digestibility of ADF was increased (p<0.05) for the anaerobically fermented diet and for the 0.5% LAB culture plus anaerobically fermented diet. The digestibility of crude ash tended to increase (p>0.05) with feeding of the fermented diets. Feeding either of the fermented diets had little effects on serum nutrients, electrolytes, enzymes and blood cell profiles of rats except sodium and uric acid concentrations. These results showed that compared with feeding a dry food residue-containing diet, feeding aerobically or anaerobically fermented diets showed better animal performance as indicated by higher feed efficiency and rat growth rate. These improvements were attributed to the desirable dietary protein conservation during the food residue fermentation process and to higher total tract digestibilities of NDF and crude ash in the fermented food residue diets.