Nutritive value of rubber seed meal and oil--reproductive performance of female rats fed soybean meal versus rubber seed meal diets
1989
Babatunde, G.M. | Pond, W.G.
Forty-two female Sprague-Dawley rats (179 g initial liveweight, age 7 to 8 weeks) were used to investigate the effects of feeding diets containing combinations of soybean meal (SBM) and rubber seed meal (RSM) as the protein source on reproductive performance from pregestation through lactation. Seven isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets (17% crude protein on dry matter basis) were formulated principally from corn starch, soybean meal, rubber seed meal and oil, in such a way that diets 1 and 2 had all the protein supplied by SBM alone, while in diets 3, 4, 5, and 6, protein from RSM replaced 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%, respectively, of the SBM protein in diet 1. Diet 7 was the same as diet 6, except that it was supplemented with lysine and methionine up to the NRC-recommended levels. All rats were mated at approximately 230 g liveweight. There were significant treatment differences in the means for number of times mated, liveweight of dams before whelping, liveweight after whelping, daily gain during gestation, and pup and dam weight at weaning. There were no significant differences in the number of pups born/litter, pup birth weight, number of pups weaned/litter, daily gain of the dams from start of the experiment to first mating, their liveweight at breeding and during lactation. The results suggest that the use of RMS at more than a 25% contribution to total protein in rats diets containing RSM and SBM as the protein sources is not satisfactory for optimum preweaning growth and survival of the pups and lactation of the dam.
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