RABBIT PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE AS INFLUENCED BY FEEDING HALOPHYTE PLANT (KOCHIA SCOPARIA)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Animal Production Dept., Fac. of Agric., Ain Shams Univ., Egypt.

2 Poultry Production Dept., Fac. of Agric., Ain Shams Univ., Egypt.

3 Ministry of health and population, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

A feeding trial consists of forty-five unsexed weaning Baladi growing rabbits was conducted to investigate the utilization of halophytes in rabbit’s diets. The rabbits were allocated into three groups (15 animals each), first group was fed a basal diet as control one (T1), the second group (T2) was fed a combination of 75% basal diet plus25% saline water Kochia while the third group (T3) was fed a combination of50% basal diet plus50% saline water Kochia. Concerning growth performance parameters, the control group (T1) showed the highest value of average daily gain and body weight (P≤0.05) compared to the other groups, alsoT1 had a better value (P≤0.05) of feed conversion compared with the other groups. Concerning daily feed intake, rabbits fed control diet consumed more feed than those fed the other diets with significant differences (P≤0.05). Furthermore, the data showed that there weren’t any significant (P≥0.05) differences observed in mortality number among the different treatments. The results showed insignificant differences (P≥0.05) in plasma total proteins, albumin, globulin, A/G ratio, urea and creatinine between the control and treated groups, while the values of AST and ALT showed significant differences (P≤0.05). Moreover, results showed that there weren’t significant differences between treatments in carcass traits measurements. Also, results revealed that the rabbits fed diets containing saline kochia had the higher values of economic efficiency and relative economic efficiency, whereas performance index and production efficiency factor of rabbits fed control diet were higher than the other treated groups. These results indicate that utilizing saline water to produce halophytes feed (kochia) could be an avenue to recover the feedstuff shortage, minimize feed cost and increase economic efficiency of growing rabbits.

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