Water-Soaked Leucaena Leucocephala Leaf Meal as Feed for Rabbits: Effect of Inclusion on the Performance

Abstract

Leucaena leucocephala is high-nutrient legume due to its crude protein rate (20-30%). Unfortunately, its utilization needs to be restricted due to the presence of mimosine, a compound that exhibits negative effects on livestocks. This study aimed to compare the performance of adult male rabbits after given commercial feed supplemented with water-soaked and air-dried Leucaenaleaf meal (WSADL) with those given air-dried Leucaena leaf meal (ADL).Fifty local male rabbits, 6 months old and weighing around 2.0-2.3 kg, were used as samples. This study used a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with five treatment groups (n=10), consisting of one control group that were fed commercial feed (R0), three groups that were fed WSADL (15%, 22.5%, and 30%) and one group that was fed 15% of ADL. Those rabbits were fed for 60 days. The independent variables being observed were the dry matter intake, daily weight gain, and feed conversion ratio (FCR). The result showed that the supplementation of Leucaena leaf meal which was processed through water-soaking and air-dried as much as 30% on rabbit feed did not reduce the dry matter intake, while it increased body weight gain and efficiency of feed usage.