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Apr 30, 2020Keywords:
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Main Article Content
EFFICACY OF Aspergillus niger ISOLATED FROM TWO SOURCES IN THE BIODEGRADATION OF MAIZE CROP RESIDUES
Abstract
Fungi generally grow on carbon-rich organic substrates; a few others including Aspergillus niger are more
ubiquitous, as they are often found in usual environments such as damp walls. The present study assessed the
performances of Aspergillus niger isolates obtained from two different environments, namely a dry mushroom
conk (A. niger MC) and maize grains (A. niger MG), on the efficacy of biodegradation of maize crop residues.
Treatments consist of the inoculation of 10g each of maize stover, maize husk or maize cob in a replicated
randomized complete block design with suspensions of both isolates in a solid state fermentation study. The
proximate composition, acid detergent fiber (ADF) and digestible dry matter (DDM) were investigated. Maize
stover had the best proximate composition with 3.7% protein, 4.3 % ash and 92.9 % dry matter while cobs had
the poorest with 1.9 %, 1.3 % and 87.2% respectively. There were significant different (p<0.05) levels of feed
improvement following fermentation with both isolates. A. niger MC fermentation of stover gave the highest
reduction in ADF from 52.2 % to 30.7%, while the least was observed with husk from 40.7% to 36.0 %. The
highest increase in DDM was observed in stover which increased from 48.3% to 52.3% and 64.8 % following
A. niger MG and A. niger MC fermentations respectively. Results show that A. niger mediated fermentation
improved the digestibility parameters of the maize crop residues and Aspergillus niger isolated from dry
mushroom was more effective compared to maize isolate.
