EFFICACY OF Aspergillus niger ISOLATED FROM TWO SOURCES IN THE BIODEGRADATION OF MAIZE CROP RESIDUES

Fungi generally grow on carbon-rich organic substrates; a few others including Aspergillus niger are moreubiquitous, as they are often found in usual environments such as damp walls. The present study assessed theperformances of Aspergillus niger isolates obtained from two different environments, namely a dry mushroomconk (A. niger MC) and maize grains (A. niger MG), on the efficacy of biodegradation of maize crop residues.Treatments consist of the inoculation of 10g each of maize stover, maize husk or maize cob in a replicatedrandomized complete block design with suspensions of both isolates in a solid state fermentation study. Theproximate composition, acid detergent fiber (ADF) and digestible dry matter (DDM) were investigated. Maizestover had the best proximate composition with 3.7% protein, 4.3 % ash and 92.9 % dry matter while cobs hadthe poorest with 1.9 %, 1.3 % and 87.2% respectively. There were significant different (p<0.05) levels of feedimprovement following fermentation with both isolates. A. niger MC fermentation of stover gave the highestreduction in ADF from 52.2 % to 30.7%, while the least was observed with husk from 40.7% to 36.0 %. Thehighest increase in DDM was observed in stover which increased from 48.3% to 52.3% and 64.8 % followingA. niger MG and A. niger MC fermentations respectively. Results show that A. niger mediated fermentationimproved the digestibility parameters of the maize crop residues and Aspergillus niger isolated from drymushroom was more effective compared to maize isolate