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AUTHOR(S): Eseohe Ejeme Martins, Adeyemi Mustapha Bamgbose, Richard Abiodun Sobayo, Lawrence Tokunbo Egbeyale
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TITLE Response of Weaner Rabbits to Differently Processed Cassava Root Meal-Full Fat Soybean Based Diets |
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ABSTRACT Feeding is the most important component of rabbit production, representing 70% of the costs. Research on alternative feed ingredients for rabbit diets like cassava by-products are important for reducing the cost of production. This study investigated the response of weaner rabbits to differently processed cassava root meal-full fat soybean diets. Cassava roots after peeling and washing, were subjected to five different processing methods: unseived, sieved, pulverized, wet-grated and chips before mixing with extruded full-fat soybean at a ratio of 50:50 to obtain five CASSOY blends. The CASSOY were each used at 30% inclusion levels to obtain 5 dietary treatments. Thirty-six weaner rabbits were divided into six treatments with six replicate, a rabbit per replicate. Feed intake, growth, nutrient digestibility, haematology; serum indices, carcass characteristics, sensory evaluation and cost implication were determined for 10 weeks. Data were subjected to one-way analysis of variance in a completely randomized design. Results showed highest (p<0.05) packed cell volume (44.00%), haemoglobin (15.10g/dL), red blood cell count (3.63 X1012/L) values were recorded for rabbits fed diets with pulverized cassava root while white blood cell count (6.50 X103/L) was lowest for rabbit fed the control diet. Total protein and globulin were highest (p<0.05) in rabbits fed the control diet, glucose and urea were lowest (p>0.05) in rabbits fed diet with unsieved cassava root. Highest dressing percentage (60.28%) was recorded for rabbit fed diet with sieved cassava root. Sensory evaluation was significant (p<0.05) for all the parameters with the highest overall acceptability for rabbits fed diet with sieved cassava root. The lowest (p>0.05) feed cost (₦177.04) and feed cost/weight gain were recorded for diet with wet-grated cassava root. The study concluded that experimental diets with CASSOY did not improve the growth performance of rabbits but improved the blood parameters and cost benefit analysis |
KEYWORDS Rabbit, Cassava root-meal, Soybean meal, CASSOY |
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Cite this paper Eseohe Ejeme Martins, Adeyemi Mustapha Bamgbose, Richard Abiodun Sobayo, Lawrence Tokunbo Egbeyale. (2020) Response of Weaner Rabbits to Differently Processed Cassava Root Meal-Full Fat Soybean Based Diets. International Journal of Agricultural Science, 5, 67-84 |
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