A study on radiation sterilization of SPF animal feed

SPF animal feed could be infected with various microorganisms in the crushi ng or granulating process. Fumigation with chemicals is generally employed for sterilization of feeds, but owing to low permeability of the chemicals, this sterilization method is not very good, and there may be residual chem icals in the feed. Research results of sterilization by radiation show that irradiation by Co-60 gamma rays will reduce infections for SPF animals. 8 kGy can kill microrganisms in the feed with satisfactory efficiency. After the irradiation treatment with different doses, the changes of nutrient com ponents in the feeds, such as crude fats, coarse fibres, calcium, phosphoru s, salts and amino acids, were not found to change in our tests. (C) 2000 P ublished by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.