Open AccessEffect of Dietary Additives on Rabbit Performance, Carcass Traits and Some Blood Constituents under Egyptation Summer Season
Author(s) -
sara khalil sherif
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of agricultural science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1916-9760
pISSN - 1916-9752
DOI - 10.5539/jas.v10n1p139
Subject(s) - feed conversion ratio , body weight , zoology , summer season , weight gain , biology , basal (medicine) , chemistry , food science , microbiology and biotechnology , endocrinology , physics , meteorology , insulin
Sixty 7-week-old New Zealand White rabbits were randomly distributed into 5 equal experimental groups. The experimental rabbits were fed the tested diets till 14 weeks of age during summer season. The basal diet without feed additives (control; T1) and the other experimental diets were supplemented with enzymes at 0.5 g/kg (T2), organic acids at 1.0 g/kg (T3), Beta-pro at 0.2 g/kg (T4) or their combination (T5). The criteria of response were body weight, weight gain, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio, some blood constituents, carcass traits and economic efficiency. The obtained results can be summarized as follows: Positive effects of feed additives were observed on live body weight, daily weight gain and feed conversion of growing rabbits. There were no significant effects on blood parameters or carcass traits due to feed additives. It can be concluded that dietary Beta-pro (enzymes+probiotics) or a combination of enzymes, organic acids and Beta-pro at the tested levels can be used to improve the rabbit performance, with no adverse effects on carcass characteristics or blood parameters.