Assessment of growth responses of Wistar rats fed with a diet containing composite flour premix

Abstract

Composite flour technology involves the process of mixing cereals and legumes to facilitate the usage of locally available raw materials to produce high-quality food products economically. The present investigation evaluated the growth responses of a composite flour blend formulated using selected cereals, pulses and oil seed (a total of nine grains) were evaluated in two-month-old growing Wistar rats. The feeding trial was conducted for four weeks after an acclimatization period of five days. Daily feed intake and weekly body weight were recorded and parameters such as weight gain, feed conversion efficiency and digestibility of protein were estimated. A significantly higher average final live weight, weekly weight gain and better feed conversion efficiency (p<0.05) were observed in the treatment group. The observed values of digestibility of protein were 84.74 ± 0.85 % and 65.16 ± 0.89 % respectively for the treatment and control diets. Data were analyzed statistically using Analysis of Variance in SPSS 24 software. The investigation revealed that the formulated composite flour premix promotes growth with good protein digestibility in rats and could be used for nutraceutical fortifications to support human life and good health.

Keywords

• growth responses
• feed conversion efficiency
• composite flour premix
• protein digestibility