Study of the Effect of Electron Irradiation on Crude Protein Degradability and Antinutritional Factors in Soybean

To study the effect of electron beam irradiation at doses of 15 and 30 kGy on the degradability of dry matter and crude protein of soybean in the sheep rumen an experiment was performed by nylon bags. 3 g of untreated and irradiated soybean was incubated in the rumen of three adult fistulated rams for 0, 2, 4,8,12, 16, 24 and 48 h. Significant differences were observed between untreated and irradiated soybean (P < 0.05). Degradation of crude protein of untreated samples at passage rate of 5 %/hr was 80.29% and for irradiated soybean was found to be 73.28 % (P < 0.05). Electron beam irradiation reduced phytic acid content and trypsin inhibitor function to the amount of 99.45 and 67 % compared to untreated sample.