Bioconversion of Lignocellulose into Ruminant Feed with White Rot Fungi—Review of Work Done at the FAL, Braunschweig

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Abstract
Zadrazil, F., Kamra, D.N., Isikhuemhen, O.S., Schuchardt, F. and Flachowsky, G. 1996. Bioconversion of lignocellulose into ruminant feed with white rot fungi—Review of work done at the FAL, Braunschweig. J. Appl. Anim. Res.,10: 105–124. The work on bioconversion of lignocellulosic agricultural by products for the production of feed and food has been going on for the last two decades at the Institut für Bodenbiologie, FAL Braunschweig, Germany. About 300 strains of basidiomycetes have been screened for their ability to degrade lignin and cause a change in in vitro dry matter digestibility of various lignocellulosic agricultural by products. Among the fungal strains tested, some species of Pleurotus, Ganoderma, Stropharia, Polyporus, Abortiporus, Dichomitus, Lentinus, Sporotrichum and Trametes have been found to degrade lignin selectively and also increase the in vitro digestibility significantly. The fermentation parameters for cultivation of Pleurotus for food and feed have been studied in detail and a 1.5 tonne capacity solid state fermentation reactor has been constructed. Several experiments for bioconversion of wheat straw with Pleurotus sajorcaju have been conducted in this reactor and the results of increase in digestibility have been found to be comparable with wheat straw treated with chemicals like sodium hydroxide, urea or ammonia.