Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility and Economy of Rabbits Fed Varying Dietary Levels of Cameroon Pepper Fruit Meal

摘要

Thirty six (36) weanling crossbred male rabbits (Chinchilla x New Zealand) with an average weight of 0.85kg were allotted in a CRD to four experimental diets (16.55% CP and 2650 kcal ME/kg) or treatments and fed ad libitum for 12weeks. Each treatment comprised of 9 rabbits in 3 replicates of three rabbits each. Treatments or diets 2, 3 and 4 contained 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3% Cameroon Pepper Fruit Meal (CPFM) respectively while Treatment/Diet 1 without CPFM (0%) served as the control. The Rabbits were housed in a three-tier iron hutch (65cm x 66cmx 52cm). The daily weight gain, final body weight, feed efficiency and digestibility of dry matter, ether extract and crude fibre were similar (p 0.05) across treatments meaning that CPFM had no negative effect on these parameters. Daily feed intake (69.10 – 89.07g) and protein intake (11.45 – 14.75g), feed conversion ratio (6.38 – 9.98), protein efficiency ratio (1.39 – 1.82), metabolizable energy intake (177.12 – 228.03 kcal/kg), cost of feed intake per rabbit (N651.47 – 820.05), cost of feed intake per kg body weight gain (N710.74 – 1093.81) and digestibility of crude protein (77.75 – 84.54%) varied significantly (p 0.05) across treatments. Feeding crossbred weaner rabbits with diets containing up to 0.3% CPFM elicited optimum growth performance with the highest value for weight gain, final body weight, protein intake, digestibility of protein, protein efficiency ratio and efficiency of feed utilization; and a corresponding least value for feed conversion ratio and cost of feed per kg body weight gain.