Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Department of Poultry Production, Faculty of Agriculture, New Valley University,
2
Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, New Valley University, Egypt
3
Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, New Valley University, Egypt.
Abstract
A total seventy-five New Zealand White (NZW) weaned rabbits, four weeks age with average body weight 491±2.77g, were used to investigate impact of mulitenzymes (EZ) addition to diets containing date stone meal (DSM) on growth performance traits, nutrient digestibility coefficient and economical efficiency of growing rabbits. Rabbit randomly allotted into five experimental groups; each experimental group contains 15 rabbits. The 1st group was fed basal diet and used as control group, which was contained 0% date stone. Rabbits in the 2nd and 3rd groups were fed diets contained 10% DSM (low density diets) either without or with EZ addition, respectively. Rabbits in the 4th and 5th groups were fed diets contained 20% DSM (low density diets) either without or with EZ addition, respectively. Body weight (BW) and feed intake (FI) were weekly recorded and body weight gain (BWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), production index and economical efficiency were calculated. At the 12 weeks of age, 5 rabbits from each experimental group were taken for the digestibility trial. The results revealed that supplementation of EZ to 10% DSM diets increased significantly (p˂0.05) BW, BWG, FI, FCR, economic efficiency and production index compared to control diet. In addition, the groups on the control diet and 10% DSM with EZ group exhibited significantly (p˂0.05) greater BW, BWG, FI and better FCR, economic efficiency and production index than the other DSM groups, during periods 4-8 and 4-12 weeks of age. On the other hand, the group on 20% DSM with EZ group showed significantly (p˂0.05) greater BW, BWG, FI, FCR, economic efficiency and production index than the 20% DSM without EZ group. Enzyme supplementation to 10% and 20% DSM diets improved significantly (p˂0.05) nutrients digestibility coefficient compared to control group. From the present results it can be concluded that date stone meal can be inclusion in rabbit diets up to 20% with adding EZ without adverse effect on rabbit performance and up to 10% with adding EZ to achieve good performance, economical efficiency comparable to control group, under Egyptian environmental conditions.
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