GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND HAEMATOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF GROWING RABBITS FED DIETS WITH VARYING LEVELS OF MAIZE CHAFF

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the performance and haematological indices of growing rabbits fed maize chaff (MC) based diets as replacement for Brewer’s Dried Grain (BDG). Twenty-four (24) eight weeks old growing rabbits of mixed breeds balanced for sex were randomly selected and assigned to four (4) treatment groups replicated thrice and each treatment contained six (6) rabbits in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). Four (4) isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets with dietary inclusion levels of maize chaff at 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30% were formulated as replacement for Brewer’s Dried Grain (BDG). Data were collected for average feed intake, average weight gain, feed conversion ratio and haematological indices such as packed cell volume, red blood cell, white blood cell count among others. The data collected were subjected to analysis of variance procedure (ANOVA) using General Linear Model (GLM) of SPSS (Version 2015). Results of the study showed that there were no significant differences (P>0.05) in the means of the Average Daily Feed Intake (ADFI), Average Daily Weight Gain (ADWG), Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR), and the Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER)of the rabbits across the four diets. ADWG was highest in rabbits fed T4 (7.14g) and lowest in T2 at 5.13g. The values obtained for the means of the ADFI showed that the rabbits fed the T4 consumed on the average the highest amount of feed per day at 97.3g with rabbit fed the T1 consuming the lowest amount of feed at 91.7g. This may be attributed to the nutritive value of maize chaff compared to BDG. However, significant differences (P<0.05) were observed in packed cell volume (PCV), red blood cell (RBC), haemoglobin concentration (HB), mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) across all the dietary treatments. It was therefore concluded that maize chaff can replace BDG in rabbit diet up to 30% inclusion level without adversely affecting performance