Economic and productive impact of an herbal mixture with choline derivatives on rabbit production

Abstract

The use, as well as the productive and economic effect of herbal compounds on rabbit production has been little studied, for this reason, the objective was to evaluate the effect of a polyherbal mixture rich in choline conjugates based on Trachyspermum ammi, Achyranthes aspera, Azadirachta indica and Citrullus colocynthis, on the economic and productive response of meat rabbits. For this, 40 New Zealand X California rabbits (30-d old) were used, which were randomized into five groups (0.0, 200, 400, 600 and 800 mg kg-1 of polyherbal DM, BioCholina®), the experiment lasted 34 days. The productive response, meat quality and economic indicators were evaluated. A completely randomized design with an arrangement of orthogonal polynomials was used to determine linear and quadratic effects, with a significance level of P<0.05. The results in terms of production parameters were similar between treatments, except for feed consumption (P=0.006) and feed conversion (P=0.005) with a linear effect at higher concentration of the polyherbal. The inclusion of the polyherbal increased pH in meat (linear, P=0.004) and coordinate b* (linear, P=0.009), it was observed that the treatment with 200 mg showed the best economic indicators, improving the income-expense ratio by 9 percentage units. It is concluded that the addition of polyherbal mixtures based on natural choline conjugate did not improve the productive variables, however, a favorable economic trend is marked with the addition of 200 mg kg-1 of DM.