From foo@SWIPNET.SE Fri Jul  6 20:23:19 2001
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 17:20:29 +0200
From: Jacky Foo 
Reply-To: "IBSnet: General Forum on Integrated Bio-Systems"
    
To: ET-W1@SEGATE.SUNET.SE
Subject: [IBS-GEN] health risks

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-----Original Message-----
From: Jacky Foo [foo@swipnet.se]

As the mailing list for the e-seminar on "Improvement of nutritive quality of crop by-products using bioprocess technique and their
uses for animals" will be used for the next e-seminar/workshop on "Design of an IBS Eco-Village for 300 Families of the Disabled in
Cambodia" (9-29 July.
http://www.ias.unu.edu/proceedings/icibs/ibs/ibsnet/e-seminar/PeterGuagliano/pg-ann.html ), discussion on the bioconversion of crop
by-products will now continue via this mailing list.

below is the first forwarded message.


++
From: Amelia Kivaisi [mailto:akivaisi@amu.udsm.ac.tz]

Jacky wrote:
>There is a M.Sc. thesis
>(http://www.ias.unu.edu/proceedings/icibs/ibs/info/sweden/kth/thesis-jh.pdf)
> done by Jonas Hoglov (Royal
>Inst of Technology, Stockholm) in cooperation with the University of Dar
>es Salaam (Applied Microbiology Unit, Faculty of Science)
>on the growing of Pleurotus flabellatus (oyster mushroom) in water
>hyacinth in order to increase the nutritional value for
>subsequent use as animal feed. Crude Protein content increased to 15 %,
>hemicellulose decreased to 30 %.
>
>Dr. Amelia Kivaisi was the supervisor and she may wish to comment further
>on the work done at AMU and add to the discussion on the
>choice of organisms for feed enrichments in the context of health risks.

Dear Jacky,

Now let me contribute a bit on the use of fermented foods for animal feed
with reference to our small project. We have been trying to investigate the
possibility of using the water hyacinth for ruminant feed. Mark you our
target animal is a ruminant and not chickens. Our preliminary results show
that the edible mushroom has a potential for improving on the nutritional
value of the weed by reducing the lignin content and at the same time
increasing the protein content. We need to carry out  in vitro experiments
with the fungi colonized water hyacinth in an artificial rumen reactor to
determine the digestibility. Later on we will do the in situ experiements
with the animals.

As for the health risks, we are not sure. May be one needs to do a separate
study to determine the risks involved.

Best regards,
Amelia