Vermiculture in Egypt: - FAO - Regional Office for the Near East and

6. Current animal feed protein supplements production
in Egypt and the potential to substitute desiccated
compost worms as an animal feed supplement or use
of live worms in aquaculture industries.
Production of vermicompost and vermiculture is covered in previous chapters. In
order to utilize the products and byproducts of the industry, clear end-users should be
defined in order to facilitate the development of the industry. One important possible
consumption chain is the utilization in animal and fish feed protein supplement. This
chapter handles such possibilities.
6.1. Animal and aquaculture feed
The basic reason for the poor performance of livestock in developing countries is the
seasonal inadequacy of feed, both in quantity and quality (Makkar, 2002). These
deficiencies have rarely been corrected by conservation and, or, supplementation,
often for lack of infrastructure, technical know-how, poor management, etc. In
addition, many feed resources that could have a major impact on livestock production
continue to be unused, undeveloped or poorly utilized. A critical factor in this regard
has been the lack of proper understanding of the nutritional principles underlying their
utilization.
Poultry waste has been successfully used in ruminant rations in Egypt. The total
bacterial count was considerably lower in sun dried poultry waste compared to the
oven dried waste. Aflatoxins were not detectable in the concentrate mixtures
containing poultry litter. Both feed intake and milk production in ewes was not
affected by the inclusion of 14% poultry waste as a dietary supplement, suggesting
that cottonseed meal and other high protein feed ingredients could be, at least partially
replaced, by poultry waste without any loss in productivity. The weight and age at
puberty of lambs fed a ration containing 17% poultry waste was similar to those given
a ration without any poultry waste. Similarly, poultry waste up to 20% in the diet had
no detrimental effect on growth in cattle and buffaloes and on the reproductive
performance in buffalo heifers evaluated. The inclusion of 15% poultry waste in
mixed concentrate feed decreased the cost of feed by about 10% (Makkar, 2002).
It is an ancient practice in China to feed earthworms to livestock and poultry, i.e. to
dig earthworms from fields to feed chickens and ducks or to graze chicken and ducks
to feed on earthworms at ease. Earthworms are rich in nutrients with high protein.
According to measurements, the crude protein in dry earthworms reaches about 70%,
while in wet earthworms about 10-20%. The amino acids of earthworm protein are
complete, especially the contents of Glutamic acid, Leucine and Lysine, among which
Arginine is higher than fish meal, and Tryptophan is 4 times higher than in blood
powder, and 7 times higher than in cow liver. Earthworms are rich in Vitamin A and
Vitamin B. There is 0.25mg of Vitamin B1 and 2.3mg of Vitamin B2 in each 100 g of
earthworms. Vitamin D accounts for 0.04%-0.073% of earthworms‟ wet weight. In
view of the great effects of El Niño, fish meal from Peru can not meet the market
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