Multigeneration feeding studies with an irradiated animal feed

The emphasis in recent years on livestock farming as a means of increasing the availability of animal protein in India has led to a spurt in the commercial production of a variety of cattle and poultry feeds. Adverse climatic conditions have posed problems of insect infestation and spoilage due to microorganisms, for which radiation treatment of prepacked feeds could provide a solution. The wholesomeness of an irradiated (0.2 and 2.5 Mrad) diet composed of wheat, shrimp, milk powder, vegetable and oil has been investigated in long term feeding studies involving five successive generations of rats. Growth, foodintake, longevity and mortality remained comparable between control and test groups of animals. Reproductive performance as judged by fertility index, litter size and weaning index were also similar. Examination of the animals sacrified at the age of 23-24 months for gross pathological manifestations including tumor incidence did not indicate any significant differences between the control and the test groups. Judged by a variety of parameters, the rearing of rats for upto five generations on an irradiated diet had no adverse influences on their health. (author)