Authors: Egbeyale L.T., Idowu O.M.O., Sogunle O.M., Amole T.A., Ogundipe B.O., Adeleye O.O.
Nigerian Journal of Animal production 2012 Nigerian Society for Animal production
Abstract
A ten week feeding trial was conducted to investigate tire dietary effect of Cassava Root Sievate (CRS) based diet on tire performance. nutrient digestibility. blood parameters and carcass characteristics of weaner rabbits Forty-eight (48) crossbred. 7 weeks old weaner rabbits “‘ere used in tire feeding trial in a completely randomized design. Tire CRS replaced wheat offal at 0, 5, l O, 15, 20, 25 and 30%, respectively resulting seven dietary treatments, respectively. No significant (P>0.05) difference was observed between tire rabbitsfed tire CRS and control diets in all the performance indices except tire daily and final bodv weight. Weight gaur however decreased significantly (P<0.05) as the CRS level increased in tire diet. The treatment effect was significant (P<0.05) with the highest crude protein, crude fibre and dry mailer digestibility values recorded/or tire rabbit in the control group. Daily energy intake and retained, digestible energy, metabolizable energy and gross energy were similar (P>0.05) across treatments. Biological value and apparent nitrogen digestibilitv were significantly (P<0.05) decreased with increased CRS level. Blood serum metabolites of the rabbits were also positively (P<0.05) influenced by the treatments. Tire carcass characteristics showed significance (P<0.05) in terms of carcass yield percentage with 20% CRS treatment group having tire highest carcass yield percentage. lt was concluded in this study that CRS could be included in weaner rabbit diets up to 20% without compromising performance, carcass yield, digestibility and nutrient utilization.
Â