With its high content of carbohydrates and low percentage of lignin, corn fiber represents a renewable feedstock that can be processed to produce biofuels. Through a combination of pretreatment by lime and enzymatic hydrolysis, total reducing sugars of 700 mg/g corn fiber were released. This amount is equivalent to 92.7% of theoretically available sugars in corn fiber. The resulting hydrolysate itself did not support any growth of Cryptococcus curvatus. But with addition of minerals, C. curvatus grew to a cell density of 6.6 g/L in 6 days. Using the adapted cells, rapid sugar consumption and cell growth were observed. This study demonstrated that it is feasible to produce microbial lipids from corn fiber through pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, and fermentation. In addition, C. curvatus is an excellent candidate for this application since it can utilize all major sugars, glucose, xylose, and arabinose with yield of cells and lipids as 0.55 and 0.27 g/g sugars, respectively.
A feeding trial was conducted with laying hens where either 10% or 20% regular-fat distiller's dried grains with solubles (R-DDGS) or low-fat DDGS (L-DDGS) were incorporated into the feed. Production parameters and the effect of DDGS on egg nutritional quality, focusing on yolk lipids, were evaluated. Neither R-DDGS nor L-DDGS at up to 20% of laying hen feeds had a statistically significant impact on hen weight gain, egg production, feed intake, feed efficiency, egg mass, or egg weight. Specific gravity was slightly lower for eggs from hens fed 10% R-DDGS or 20% L-DDGS. Eggs from layers fed DDGS had enhanced levels of tocopherols, tocotrienols, and xanthophylls in the yolk, as well as also increased yolk yellow and red color. Eggs from L-DDGS diet had higher tocopherol content, but eggs from R-DDGS diets had higher xanthophylls. Fatty acid composition in eggs was slightly altered by DDGS, but the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fatty acids was very similar. Feeding DDGS to layer hens had no effect on lecithin or cholesterol content of the eggs. Thus, inclusion of DDGS in the diet of laying hens resulted in increases of several beneficial lipophilic nutrients in egg yolks with no apparent detrimental effects.
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