The grain replacement value of sun dried cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) leaf and peel meal with or without DL-methionine supplementation on performance of rabbit bucks in the derived savannah zone of Nigeria
2010
Ojebiyi, O.O.,Ladoke Akintola Univ. of Technology, Ogbomoso (Nigeria). Dept. of Animal Production and Health | Oladunjoye, I.O.,Ladoke Akintola Univ. of Technology, Ogbomoso (Nigeria). Dept. of Animal Production and Health | Eso, I.R.,Ladoke Akintola Univ. of Technology, Ogbomoso (Nigeria). Dept. of Animal Production and Health
A feeding trial was conducted using 24 crossbred male rabbits (629.3-630.75 g) to study their response to diets that contained mixtures of cassava peel meal (CPM) and leaf meal (3:2) in replacement for maize. Three experimental diets were formulated as follows: diet 1 (control) had no cassava peel/leaf meal mixture, diet 2 had 50% maize of the control diet replaced with cassava peel/leaf meal mixture with methionine supplementation, diet 3 was similar to diet 2 but without methionine supplementation. The rabbits were divided into three groups of eight rabbits each and randomly assigned to the three diets in a completely randomized design with each rabbit serving as a replicate. Data were collected on feed intake, weight gain, feed : gain ratio, production costs, haematological characteristics, nutrient utilization and internal organ weight. Data were analyzed using general linear model. Our results showed that final live weight and average weight gain of diets 1 and 2 (1,579.5 g and 11.21 g, resp.; 1,476 g and 10.98 g, resp.) were similar. The values obtained with the diet 3 (1,347.50 and 9.33 g) were significantly lower. Rabbits that were fed diet 1 and 2 were also superior to those fed diet 3 in terms of feed utilization as reflected in the feed:gain ratio (5.01 and 5.41, resp., vs. 6.57). Rabbits fed CPM/CLM mixture (diets 2 and 3) showed higher dry matter and crude protein digestibility than the control group. However, the organ weights of the animals were not affected by the diets. The values of lymphocytes, neutrophils and eosinophils counts did not follow any particular trend. Production costs were significantly reduced when using cassava and methionine.
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