Long term feeding of Karanj seed cake is deleterious for lambs

The large gap between the availability and requirements of animal feeds necessitated the exploration of alternate unconventional feeds for their use in livestock rations. Pongamia pinnata Pierre (Hindi — Karanj) seed cake is available in large quantity, i.e. 80 thousand tonnes/annum in India and it contains about 300g crude protein/ kg. However, raw karanj cake (KC) is not commonly used as a feed for livestock and poultry due to its poor intake and toxic factors, i.e. furanoflavones like karanjin, pongamol and certain other polyphenolic compounds. Physical methods such as autoclaving, water washing, soaking and partial de-oiling, i.e. 25–30g EE/kg and chemical methods such as alkali treatments have been tried to detoxify the karanj cake. These toxic factors being fat soluble can largely be removed by oil extraction. A study conducted by researchers at Animal Nutrition Division, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India reported the effects of feeding of these cakes for 255 days on various nutritional, biochemical, carcass, radiographical and histopathological parameters in lambs. Fifteen healthy non-descript growing male lambs (10.6±0.5kg) were divided into three equal groups following completely randomized design and were fed a concentrate mixture containing deoiled groundnut cake, expeller pressed karanj cake and solvent extracted karanj cake, respectively, in groups 1-3. The digestibility of dry matter, organic matter and ether extract was comparable (P>0.05) among three groups. No gross pathological lesions could be seen in vital organs among three groups but spermatogenesis was affected. Long term feeding of expeller pressed and solvent extracted karanj cake revealed deleterious effects on the performance of lambs. The researchers concluded that the long term feeding of expeller pressed and to some extent solvent extracted karanj cake had deleterious effects on the nutrient utilization, blood biochemical profile, rumen fermentation pattern, carcass characteristics and manifested clinico-pathological changes in bone and tissues of vital organs [Singh P, Sastry VRB, Garg AK, Sharma AK, Singh GR and Agrawal DK, Effect of long term feeding of expeller pressed and solvent extracted karanj (Pongamia pinnata) seed cake on the performance of lambs, Anim Feed Sci Technol, 2006, 126(1-2), 157-167]. Long term feeding of Karanj seed cake is deleterious for lambs