EFFECT OF DIETARY PROTEIN LEVELS AND ZINC SUPPLEMENTATION ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE, DIGESTIBILITY, BLOOD CONSTITUENTS AND CARCASS TRAITS OF GROWING RABBITS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Anim. Prod. Dept., Fac. Agric., Zagazig Univ., Egypt

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of the dietary protein level (low; LP or high; HP) and diet supplemented with zinc on growth performance, nutrients digestibility, blood biochemistry, and carcass traits of growing rabbits. A total of 28 New Zealand White (NZW) male rabbits with an initial body weight of 734.6±14.69 g were randomly divided into 4 treatment groups for 8 weeks feeding trial. Two dietary levels of crude protein, i.e. 14.76 and 18.53% and two levels of zinc oxide (ZnO) 0 and 100 mg /kg diet were used in 2 × 2 factorial design. The results showed that ZnO supplementation caused a significant (P˂0.01) increase in final live body weight (FBW), daily body weight gain (DWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), digestibility coefficients (DM, OM, CP),and nutritive values (DCP, TDN and DE) without significant effects related to its interaction with protein level. However, ZnO supplementation showed insignificant effects in estimated blood parameters dressing percentage and relative weights of liver, kidney, heart, lung and spleen .On the other hand, the final margin was increased with ZnO supplementation in rabbits fed LP and HP diets by 27.17 and 9.23%, respectively. Conclusively, the results revealed that fortification of low or high protein diet with ZnO at level of 100 mg/kg could significantly enhance the growth performance, and nutrients digestibility of growing rabbit without harmful effect on blood constituents. Furthermore, using ZnO in the growing rabbit diets (LP or HP) was more economical than the non-supplemented diets.

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Zagazig Journal of Agricultural Research
Volume 44, Issue 4
July 2017
Pages 1369-1378

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