Effect of cellobiose supplementation on growth performance and health in rabbits

摘要

The effect of cellobiose supplementation on the performance of growing rabbits and its interaction with dietary soluble fibre was evaluated in a farm affected by epizootic rabbit enteropathy. In Experiment 1, six treatments in a 3 x 2 factorial arrangement were used: 3 cellobiose doses in drinking water supplemented from 26 to 42 days of age (0.0, 3.5, 7.0 g/L) x 2 dietary soluble fibre levels provided from 26 to 39 days of age (71.9 vs. 130 g/kg DM, for LSF and HSF diets, respectively) to 192 weaned 26-days old rabbits. In Experiment 2, the same cellobiose concentrations were supplemented from 26 to 50 days of age to 186 rabbits fed the LSF diet from 26 to 40 days of age. In Experiment 3, four treatments in a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement were used: 2 cellobiose concentrations in drinking water during the pre-weaning period (22-29 days of age) x 2 cellobiose concentrations in drinking water during the post-weaning period (29-50 days of age) (0.0 and 7.0 g/L in both periods), and assigned to 200 rabbits from 20 litters. The increase of cellobiose concentration tended to reduce the mortality in rabbits fed with LSF diets in the whole fattening period (31 vs. 9% and 23 vs. 11% between extreme cellobiose doses, for Experiments 1 and 2; P = 0.092). In contrast, in Experiment 3 rabbits supplemented with cellobiose before and after weaning tended to increase the mortality (10 vs. 25%; P = 0.087). In Experiment 1, weight gain and feed efficiency increased in LSF3.5 group from 26 to 39 days of age and in the whole fattening period (P = 0.005), resulting in a greater live weight at 56 days of age (P = 0.001). In Experiment 2, cellobiose supplementation tended to reduce feed efficiency from 26 to 40 days of age (P = 0.098), but increased it from 40 to 50 days of age (P = 0.009), resulting no effect in the whole fattening period. In Experiment 3, from 29 to 43 days of age rabbits supplemented with cellobiose, increased (P 5 0.001) their weight gain and feed efficiency, but the opposite effect was observed from 43 to 57 days of age, resulting in the whole fattening period only a trend to increase weight gain with cellobiose supplementation (P = 0.056). In conclusion, a dose of 7.0 g/L might be adequate for rabbits fed with LSF diets.