The high protein content make the poultry feed a good medium for microbial growth resulting in very high microbial loads, making pathogenic contaminations a widespread menace to the poultry raising in the country. These pathogens not only cause damage through the nutritional components of feed but also in reduced feed conversion, leading to poor biological performances of the flocks, inflicting colossal losses on the poultry farmers. Gamma irradiation treatment of animal feed has been reported to improve its microbiological and nutritional quality.

The non availability of locally produced soybean and soybean meal in substantial amounts, compels the local poultry feed producers to use combinations of different animal feed concentrates as protein source. These, generally, are highly infested and carry heavy microbial loads, necessitating use of large quantities of anti-biotic drugs. This on the one hand increases the feed cost, and on the other hand the use of antibiotics in animal feed can promotes the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in humans. This leads to public health concerns. There is, therefore, a dire need for research in order to develop/adapt such technologies which can cost-effectively reduce the microbial loads of the feed and improve its nutritional quality without leaving behind any residue in the treated feed.

A project therefore was conducted to assess the technical feasibility of this processing technique. Poultry feeds (No. 4 and 14) of 10 different brands were given radiation treatment (5kGy) and analysed for microbial load against control samples. Results revealed high mean initial fungal (9.53 X 102) and bacterial (2.02 X 103) loads in feed samples. Irradiation treatment resulted in an almost complete elimination of the fungal and bacterial loads. Storage at room conditions resulted in increase in both TFC and TBC of the feed samples. However increase during storage was much higher in control samples than irradiated samples. E.coli and mycoplasma contaminations were not found in any of the samples whereas salmonella contaminations were noted in two of the samples, which were effectively eliminated by the radiation treatment.

A 4 weeks feeding trial on 200 broiler chicks was conducted to study the efficiency of feed irradiation to improve the biological performance of the consuming chicks. Results of the trial indicated that differences, between groups fed on control and irradiated feed, with respect to performance parameters like final weight, weight gain, feed consumption, feed to gain ratio, and dressing percentage were statistically non significant. Numerically the irradiated group performed better than the control in final weight, weight gain per chick per day and feed consumption. Feed consumption efficiency was slightly better than control group.

Results of small scale feeding trial were verified in a pilot scale 5 week broiler feeding trial on 1000 birds, conducted on farmer’s shed conditions The 1000 chicks were divided into 6 groups each of 166. Three groups were raised on un-irradiated control feed, while the other three groups were raised on irradiated (5kGy) feed Results of the trial indicated that differences, between groups fed on control and irradiated feed, with respect to performance parameters like final weight, weight gain, feed consumption, feed to gain ratio, and dressing percentage were statistically non significant. Numerically, again, the irradiated group performed better than the control in final weight, weight gain per chick and feed consumption. Feed consumption efficiency was slightly better in the irradiation group than control group. The effective control of microbial load and non-existence of any negative nutritional repercussion of feed irradiation treatment, make this treatment an ideal potential candidate for commercial application.

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