EFFECT OF USING PRICKLY PEAR AND ITS BY-PRODUCTS AS ALTERNATIVE FEED RESOURCES ON PERFORMANCE OF GROWING RABBIT.

Abstract

The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of different levels of dietary replacement of barely by prickly pear fruits (PPF) and peel (PPP) on growth performance, carcass traits and antioxidant status of rabbits. A total of 75 weaned male New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits (5 weeks old) with an average initial body weight of (596.00±13.05 g) were randomly assigned to five experimental groups (15 rabbits for each). Five experimental diets were formulated; the first was used as a control diet (0% PPF and PPP). The other four diets were formulated to replace barley with either PPF or PPP at the levels of 25 and 50%. Results indicated that PPF and PPP are rich sources in vitamins C (2.4, 2.8μg/100g), vitamins E (25, 23μg/100g) and vitamin A (10, 13μg/100g). The content of gross energy (GE) in PPF was higher than that of PPP and barley. The obtained results revealed also that average of BW, BWG, FI and FCR were not affected (P<0.05) by feeding growing rabbits on diet containing either PPF or PPP under each tested level (25 and 50%) compared to rabbits group fed the control diet during (9-13) and (5-13) weeks old. Feeding growing rabbits on diets contained 50% PPF or 50% PPP resulted in noticeable improvement in both average BWG and FCR in comparison to the other experimental groups including the control group during the whole period (5-13 weeks old). Digestibility of OM, CP, EE and CF were not affected significantly by the inclusion of PPF (25 and 50%) or PPP (25 and 50%) compared to the control