Effect dietary energy level and fibre level and zinc supplementation on rabbit performance, under egyptian conditions [electronic resource].

Includes references.

One hundred and Twenty male New Zealand White rabbits, 28 day old, with nearly equal live body weight at the beginning of the experiment were randomly allotted to twelve treatment groups, of 10 rabbits each. The first six rabbit groups were fed on the normal energy diet (2500kcal DE/kg diet), while the other six groups were fed on the high energy diet (2750 kcal DE/kg diet). Within each dietary energy level,' the first three groups were fed on the normal fibre diet (12% CF)',while the other three groups were fed on the low fibre diet (10% CF). Within each dietary fibre level, the first group was fed on the diet without supplementation, the second group was fed on the diet supplemented with 100 mg zinc/kg diet, while the third group was fed on the diet supplemented with 200 mg zinc/kg diet. Final live body weight and daily weight gain were significantly (P<0.0001) increased with 15.42% and 19.82%, respectively, in rabbit groups fed high energy level than those fed normal energy level. Feed conversion was improved with increasing dietary energy level. Feed cost decreased with 9.19%, while return from body gain and final margin increased with 19.9 and 35.65%, respectively, in rabbits fed high-energy diet than those fed normal¬energy diet. Serum total protein, albumin, urea-N, creatinine AST and AL T concentrations were increased significantly (P<0.0001) with increasing energy level in rabbit diets. Analysis of covariance indicated that the dietary energy level significantly affected carcass weight (P<0.0001), hind part weight (P<0.05) and prime cuts weight (P<0.0001). Rabbits fed low-fibre diet recorded lower body weight.

Summary in Arabic.

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