Effects of different oven drying methods on the nutritional value and lactic acid bacteria load of eudrilus eugeniae

Ng, Yan Sze Jacquelyn (2023) Effects of different oven drying methods on the nutritional value and lactic acid bacteria load of eudrilus eugeniae. Final Year Project, UTAR.

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Abstract

The vermicomposting industry is becoming popular among compost production companies due to its low cost and ease of management in utilizing earthworms as the composting agent. Vermicompsting synchronizes with the propagationof the earthworm creating a surplus of earthworm population. The surplus earthworms can be utilize in animal feed as an alternative for imported livestock feed to sustain a constant profitable animal farming industry. This leads to the primary aim of this study which was to compare the different drying methods effect on the earthworm’s nutritional content and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) load for future reference to animal feed production. Since African Nightcrawler (ANC), Eudrilus eugeniae has a shorter duration of time to emerge from cocoonand optimal sexual maturity compared to the red and blue worm, it was chosen to be the earthworm source to study its potential as a supplementary animal feed. In this study, a few batches of live ANC (T1) were dried at 60 °C by conventional oven (T2) for 3 hours and vacuum oven (T3) for 2 hours. Thenutritional content and LAB load of live, T2 and T3 ANC were determined by proximate analysis and isolation of lactic acid bacteria for Colony Forming Unit (CFU) count and biochemical tests. Results showed that the nutritional content in terms of crude protein (CP) and dry matter (DM) iii percentage of T3 (CP 55.03%, DM 22.79%) was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than T2 (CP 47.43%, DM 20.39%). The potential LAB CFU count for T2 (5.87×109 CFU/g) and T3 (4.90×109 CFU/g) did not differ significantly (p ≥ 0.05). In conclusion, vacuum oven drying method (T3) is more efficient compared to conventional oven drying method (T2) in terms of reducing the drying duration, retaining higher nutrient composition and comparable amount of potential LAB that is essential in animal feed

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