Effect of Using Potato Tops Hay in Growing Rabbit Diets on Growth Performance, Digestibility and Carcass Traits
Year: 2004
Type: article
Abstract: The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of using potato tops hay instead of clover hay at levels of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 % in rabbit diets on the growth performance, feed efficiency, digestibility coefficient and some carcass traits of the NZW rabbits during the growing period from 5 to 13 weeks of age.A total of sixty NZW rabbits at 5 weeks of age were randomly divided into 6 groups, each of 10 individuals, the average body weight of rabbits in the experimental groups at beginning of the experiment ranged from 715 to 718 g.Each treatment group received one of six experimental pelleted diets.At 11 weeks of age, digestibility trial was carried out for five days and, at 13 weeks of age, five individuals were slaughtered to study carcass and offal traits.Results obtained indicated that , live body weight ,daily weight gain ,daily feed intake and production index of rabbits were not affected significantly ,while, feed conversion, protein efficiency ratio and efficiency of energy utilization of rabbits were affected significantly (p < 0.01) by feeding different levels of dried potato tops in diets through the experiment from 5 to 13 weeks of age .Rabbits fed on 20% DPT consumed less feed intake and recorded better value of feed conversion and protein efficiency ratio than other groups during the whole experimental period from 5 to 13 weeks of age.Rabbits fed diets containing 5 ,10 ,15 and 20% DPT had better values of feed conversion , protein efficiency ratio and efficiency of energy utilization than the control group , while , the group fed diet contains 30% DPT had recorded lower values at the whole period from 5-13 weeks of age.Carcass traits were not affected significantly among treatments ,while, digestibility coefficient and nutritive value were affected significantly due to feeding dried potato tops hay in rabbit diets .The highest values of digestibility coefficients of all nutrients except (EE) were recorded for rabbits fed 5 and 10% DPT in the diet.However, nutritive values were better for all groups fed DPT than the control group.The obtained results from this experiment indicate that potato tops hay can be used instead of clover hay up to 30% of the diet without any detrimental effect, while should not exceed to 10% from the practical point of view .
Language: English
Subfield: Animal Science and Zoology
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4241361556