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Citation of this paper

Growth performance of rabbits fed fibrous diets supplemented with molasses

Nguyen Thi Kim Dong and Nguyen Van Thu1

College of Applied Biology, Tay Do University, Vietnam
ntkdong@ctu.edu.vn
1 College of Agriculture, Can Tho University, Vietnam

Abstract

Supplementing a rabbit diet of sweet potato foliage and soya bean waste with up to 24% of molasses led to linear increases in feed intake. However, these changes were reflected in growth and feed conversion only up to the level of 20% beyond which the effect of the molasses was to reduce growth and feed conversion efficiency. The molasses level had no effect on carcass composition nor on meat quality but reduced the pH and increased the VFA in the cecum.

Key word: byproducts, carcass quality, cecal pH, VFA


Introduction

In Vietnam rabbit production his being paid more attention by farmers and government agencies, as a means to improve the meat production and income ofsmall scale producers (Nguyen Van Thu, 2019). Rabbits have a high rate of reproduction, and their digestive system is adapted d to utilize fibrous diets. Conventional sources of protein such as soybean are expensive and have to be imported. We propose that an alternative feeding strategy is to feed forages such as sweet potato vines and soybean waste as the proten sourceand supplement them with enenergy-rich byproducts such as molasses tat has been effectively used as the energy source in diets for pigs and other livestock (Preston et al 1968; Preston and Leng, 1986).

The objective of this study was therefore to determine the the effect on growth of rabbits of feeding increasing levels of molassesin in a diet based on sweet potato vine and soybean waste.


Materials and methods

Location and time

The experiment was carried out in the rabbit farm at 474c/18, Long Hoa village, Binh Thuy district of Can Tho City and the laboratory E205 of Dept of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Can Tho University from Nov 2017 to May 2018.

Experimental animals and design

Crossbred rabbits (Californian x local rabbit) for the experiment were produced at the rabbit farm. They were at 50 days of age with the live weight 703±51 g. Sixty rabbits were arranged in a completely randomized design with 5 treatments, corresponding to 5 molasses supplementation levels: 0, 6, 12, 18 and 24g DM/d. The rest of the diet was: sweet potato vines adl ibitm and 21 g DM/d of soybean waste. There were 3 replications. (cages) with 4 rabbits (balanced for sex) inn each experimental unit.

Feeding and measurements

The rabbits were fed three times a daily at 8.00, 15.00 and 19.00h. Molasses was mixed with soya waste and fresh water was freely avilable.

Feeds and refusals were collected daily for proximal analysis (AOAC 1990), and NDF and ADF (Van Soest et al 1991). Metabolizable energy (ME) was calculated according to Maertens et al (2002), while ME of sweet potato vine was evaluated by NRC (1998). Feed intakes were recorded daily ad live weights weekly.. After finishing the feeding trial t all the rabbit were slaughtered for evaluating the carcass and meat quality. Cecal content was analyzed for l VFAs (Barnet and Reid 1957), N-NH3 (Kjeldahl) and pH s (pH meter 300 ries Bench).

Statistical analysis

Data were collected in Microsoft Excel soft ware, and then analysed by the One-way method of Minitab Soft ware 16.20 (Minitab, 2010). Polynomial equations (Microsoft Excel software) were fitted to the growth data.


Results and discussion

Feed composition

Sweet potato vines and soya bea waste had similar concentrations of cude protein and fiber (Table 1).

Table 1. Chemical composition of feeds (%DM, except for DM which is on air-dry basis)

Feed

DM

OM

CP

EE

CF

NFE

NDF

ADF

Ash

ME (MJ/kg)

Molasses

69.1

93.0

3.51

-

-

-

-

-

6.99

15.4

Soya waste

11.9

96.2

21.4

9.87

18.0

65.0

36.6

27.2

3.76

11.2

Sweet potato vine

9.72

90.2

19.1

8.40

17.7

62.7

43.0

33.8

9.78

9.55

Feed intake, growth rate and feed conversion

The reorded intakes molasses as percent of diet DM were slightly higher than the planned intkes (Table 3). Feed intake increased linearly as the proportion of molasses in the diet was increased (Table 2; Figure 1). However, the increase in intake was reflected in growth rate and feed conversion only up to the level of 20% molasses in the diet but then showed negative trends with further increases in molsses (Figures 2 and 3).

Table 2. Feed intake (g DM/d) of rabbits fed different levels of molasses

Item

Molasses in the det, %*

SEM / p

0

6

12

18

24

Sweet potato vine

29.4

30.1

27.4

26.8

26.0

1.78/0.479

Soya waste

21.7

21.9

21.8

21.5

21.4

0.10/0.051

Molasses

-

6.35a

12.7b

19.1c

25.3d

0.29/0.001

Total DM

51.1a

58.3ab

61.9bc

67.4cd

72.7d

1.65/0.001

Molasssses as percent of diet DM

0

10.9

20.5

28.3

34.8

*Planned per cent of diet DM



Table 3. Mean values for growth rate and feed conversion of rabbbits fed increasing levels of molasses in the diet

Item

Molasses in the det, % *

±SEM/p

0

6

12

18

24

Initial live weight (g)

702

708

708

700

698

38.1/0.10

Final live weight (g)

1768a

2035b

2110b

2045b

1935ab

36.5/0.001

Daily gain (g)

15.2a

19.0bc

20.0c

19.2bc

17.7b

0.36/0.001

DM feed conversion

3.35ab

3.08a

3.10ab

3.51b

4.12c

0.09/0.001

* Planned per cent of diet DM abc Mean values with different letter in the same row ate different at p<0.05.



Figure 1. Effect of supplementary molasses on feed intake of
rabbits fed sweet potato foliage and soya bean waste
Figure 2. Effect of supplemente molasses on live weigt gain of
rabbits fed sweet potato foliage and soya bean waste

Figure 3. Effect of supplementar molasses on feed conversion of
rabbits fed sweet potato foliage and soya bean waste
Carcass quality and meat composition

Carcass weights reflected the the final live wights of the rabbits (Table 4 -7), However, cuqualitiative traits (len meat percentage and chemical composition of the eat) wee nit affected by te moklasses level I the diet (Tables 5).

Table 4. Mean vailuesfor carcass and meat trauts inrabbits fed inccreasung levels of molasses

Item

Molasses in the det, % as DM*

±SE/p

0

6

12

18

24

Live weight at slaughter (g)

1800a

2027bd

2160c

2100bc

1920d

22.5/0.001

Carcass weight* (g)

863a

957ab

1057b

1007ab

900ab

32.3/0.017

Carcass percentage (%)

47.9

47.2

48.9

48.0

46.9

1.82/0.944

Lean meat percentage (%)

68.0

70.8

73.7

70.7

73.2

4.47/0.114

*Planned per cent of diet DM. abcd Mean values with different letter in the same row ate different at p<0.05



Table 5. Chemical composition (% in fresh) of meat of rabbits fed different levels of molasses

Item

Molasses in the det, %*

±SEM/p

0

6

12

18

24

DM

25.3

26.1

25.6

26.1

25.9

0.778/0.933

OM

98.4

98.2

98.3

98.3

98.3

0.157/0.979

CP

20.3

19.7

19.6

19.9

19.4

0.582/0.837

EE

2.63

2.33

2.59

2.64

2.36

0.153/0.460

Ash

1.62

1.76

1.70

1.67

1.67

0.157/0.979

*Planned per cent of diet DM

Composition of the contents of stomach, intestine and cecum for rabbits fed incrasing levels of molasses

Molasses level did not affect the compositon of the stomach contents (Table 6) but led to reduced pH and higher concentration of VFA in the cecum (Table 8). These cha nges are similar to those induced in poultry by feedng of prebiotics and whiach area usually associated wit health benenefits in the host animal (Garcia-Curbela et al 2020).

Table 6. Chemical composition (% DM) of stomach content of rabbits fed different levels of molasses

Item

Molasses in the det, % *

±SEM/P

0

6

12

18

24

DM

13.7

12.9

12.1

13.5

12.5

1.25/0.862

OM

91.8

92.0

90.6

91.8

90.9

0.43/0.187

CP

21.2

22.8

25.8

23.6

22.9

2.56/0.784

Ash

8.18

7.98

9.37

8.24

9.07

0.43/0.188

*Planned per cent of diet DM
DM: dry matter, OM: Organic matter, CP: crude protein, EE: Ether extract



Table 7. Chemical composition (% DM) of intestine content of rabbits fed different levels of molasses

Item

Molasses in the det, %*

±SEM/P

0

6

12

18

24

DM

12.3

12.3

11.2

12.6

13.1

0.68/0.483

OM

91.9

91.8

92.0

91.5

91.9

0.24/0.796

CP

42.9

42.2

43.6

45.9

43.4

2.91/0.202

Ash

8.14

8.16

8.04

8.46

8.13

0.24/0.793

*Planned per cent of diet DM DM: dry matter, OM: Organic matter, CP: crude protein, EE: Ether extract



Table 8. Chemical composition and parameters of the cecum content of rabbits fed different levels of molasses

Item

Molasses in the det, %*

±SEM/p

0

6

12

18

24

DM, %

19.3

19.9

20.6

18.7

18.6

1.48/0.853

OM, %

87.3

87.4

86.9

86.8

86.5

0.31/0.331

CP, %

33.6

33.3

30.3

29.7

32.8

2.44/0.712

Ash, %

12.7

12.6

13.1

13.2

13.5

0.31/0.327

pH

6.60a

5.70b

5.65b

5.70b

5.76b

0.11/0.001

N-NH3, mmol/L

8.84

9.79

11.6

11.3

9.10

1.69/0.705

Total VFAs, mmol/L

61.6a

103ab

111b

93.7ab

86.4ab

9.57/0.047

*Planned per cent of diet DM ab Mean values with different letter in the same row ate different at p<0.05.


Conclusion

Supplementing a rabbit diet of sweet potato foliage and soya bean waste with up to 30% of molasses led to linear increases in feed intake. However, these changes were reflected in growth and feed conversion only up to the level of 120% beyond which the effect of the molasses was to reduce growth and feed conversion efficiency. The molasses level had no effect on carcass composition nor on meat quality but reduced the pH and increased the VFA in the cecum.


References

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Barnett A J G and Reid R L 1957 “Studies on the production of volatile fatty acids from grass by rumen liquor in an artificial rumen”, The volatile fatty acid production from grass, J. Agri. Sci. 48, pp. 315-321.

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