AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE www.arccjournals.com/www.ijaronline.in *Corresponding author’s e-mail: parthavet@yahoo.com Indian J. Anim. Res., 50 (5) 2016 : 705-710 Print ISSN:0367-6722 / Online ISSN:0976-0555 Nutritional evaluation of pulse screenings by in vitro gas production technique Partha Sarathi Swain*, D. Srinivasa Rao, D. Nagalakshmi, M. Mahender and S. Ray Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary Science, Rajendranagar-500 030, Hyderabad, India. Recieved: 28-12-2015 Accepted: 16-06-2016 DOI:10.18805/ijar.11321 ABSTRACT The present study was planned to evaluate the chemical composition and nutritive values of commonly available pulse chunies of Green gram (GGC), Black gram (BGC), Bengal gram (BnGC) and Red gram (RGC) available in the local markets of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. These chunies were subjected to chemical analysis followed by measurement of in vitro gas production (IVGP) with sheep rumen liquor. By calculation, in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD), total digestible nutrient (TDN), Metabolizable Energy (ME) was determined. DM (P<0.001), CP (P<0.001), CF (P<0.001), TA (P<0.001), NDF (P<0.001), ADF (P<0.001), cellulose (P<0.01), hemicelluloses (P<0.001), lignin (P<0.01) silica (P<0.001) and Ca (P<0.05) varied significantly. The cumulative gas production in IVGP technique at 0-2, 0-4, 0-6, 0-8, 0- 12 and 0-18h incubations varied significantly. The TDN and ME content were highest (P<0.01) in GGC. IVOMD (mg/24h) was comparable (P>0.05) among them. The study concluded that these chunies are good energy sources. GGC was the best with respect to its energy and organic matter digestibility among these. High protein and energy contents of BGC and GGC signified that these can be a good feed replacement of concentrates for livestock feeding. Key words: Fibre analysis, Gram Chunies, IVGP, IVOMD, Pulse screenings, Sheep. INTRODUCTION India is highly populated not only with cattle, buffaloes but also with humans, leading to an immense competition for the available food resources among the livestock and human beings. Cereals and legumes are conventionally used as the animal feeds (Fagbeno and Arowosoge, 1991) which intensifies the competition among livestock and human. Increased consumption of processed food by human being leads to production of large quantities of agro industrial by-products which can be an alternative for animal feeding and also dilutes this competition for conventional feed resources. Fortunately, in tropical countries ruminants have the potential to utilise the by- products obtained from food processing industries with greater efficiency. So, continuous efforts are been made to justify the potential of agro industrial by-products as animal feeds and their inclusions in the ruminants feeds to make the competition for conventional feeds a bit liberal and simultaneously make ration more economical. Thus the animal nutritionists are more focused towards utilization of non-conventional feed resources at the maximum level for livestock feeding. Among the several agro industrial by-products, pulse screenings like chunies are a major source of feed supply at farmers’ level. Chuni actually consists of broken pieces of endosperm including germs and husk obtained as by-product during the processing of pulses for human consumption (NDDB, 2012) and constitute 15-20% of total weight of pulses (Sudhakar Reddy et al., 2000). Various pulses namely black gram (Vigna mungo), bengal gram (Cicer arietinum), red gram (Cajanus cajan) and green gram (Vigna radiata) are grown as cash crops by the farmers in India. According to FAO (2009), pulses were used to an extent of 6.8 MT and 7.3MT in developing and developed countries, respectively in concentrate livestock feed. In spite of such a large availability of chunies, these are not efficiently used in the livestock feeding. Their significant nutritive potential as livestock feed has been demonstrated by many workers (Sudhakar Reddy et al., 2000; Chandran, 2005; Engtipi et a.l, 2006). Radhakrishna (1999) included green gram chuni (GGC) upto 50 per cent level in concentrate mixtures of buffaloes on rice straw based rations with no adverse effect on nutrient utilization. However, the chemical and nutritional composition these pulse screenings are mostly confined to proximate and Van Soest’s analysis. They are having significant nutritive potential as livestock feed but they are yet to be explored to the maximum level. As a good source of protein and also fibre, these can be used for different purposes and also for wide range of live stocks depending on their physical and physiological needs. Thus the present study was undertaken to estimate the potential of 4 commonly available chunies to be utilized in ruminant diets by evaluating them by various in vitro techniques.