RESPONSE OF WEANER RABBITS TO GRADED LEVEL OF OFFAL BASED DIETS OF TIGER NUT (Cyperus esculentus)

Abstract

Twenty crosses of Californian x New Zealand breed of weaner rabbits averaging 4 to 6 weeks old of mix sexes were used to investigate the growth and haematological traits of rabbits fed on tiger nut offal (TNO) based diets in
a 35- day experiment. They were randomly allotted to 5 treatment groups and replicated 4 times. Each replicate had 1 rabbit that was housed individually in a cage and were fed twice daily (7.00am and 4.00pm) and had access to drinking water at all times. Feeding troughs and drinkers were provided in each cage and a known quantity of feed was supplied daily. Five diets were compounded to be iso-nitrogenous (18% CP) and iso-caloric (2700 ME kcal/kg) and TNO was included in the diets at 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20%, respectively. Growth was observed and measured in the course of the feeding trial and the results showed non-significance (P>0.05) in feed intake (68.11-75.66 g/rabbit/day), body weight gain (5.39-8.40 g/rabbit/day), feed conversion ratio (6.64-7.82) and protein
efficiency ratio (11.59-13.38); other parameter included feed cost per kg and mortality. Blood samples from rabbit treatments revealed that there was no variation (P>0.05) in packed cells volume (26.25-34.00 %), haemoglobin (9.30-10.10 g/dl), red blood cells (2.23-2.93 X1012) and white blood cells (6.00-7.75 X107). Mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration, neutrophils and leucocytes were also not affected by the graded levels of TNO. Serum biochemistry analyses also showed that there was no variation (P>0.05) in the serum glucose (3.65-5.75 mol/l), cholesterol (2.80-5.00 mmol/l), total protein (48.50-52.50 g/dl), albumin (24.00-43.50 g/dl), creatinine (44.50-66.00 μ/l) and triglyceraldehyde (0.25-0.80 mmol/l). Similarly, serum enzymes, alkaline phosphatase, aspartate transaminase and alanine transaminase were not affected (P>0.05) by the inclusion of TNO in the diets. All the electrolytes analyzed, phosphate, calcium, sodium, chloride and bicarbonate were not influenced (P>0.05) by the treatments. The inclusion of TNO in the diet of rabbits did not affect their health status, nutrient bioavailability, and utilization as well as growth rate therefore; farmers can incorporate up to 20% of TNO in the diets of rabbits without causing any deleterious effect.