UTILIZATION OF RAW AND AUTOCLAVED WHOLE PODS OF SAMANEA SAMAN UACQ MERILL) BY THE DOMESTIC RABBIT

Abstract

The utilization of raw and autoclaved whole pods of Skamania shaman (SS) by growing rabbits was investigated. The animals were subjected to three dietary treatments containing either 0g or l00g raw or 100g autoclaved whole pods of SS per kg diet. Thirty-six growing rabbits were used for the experiment and12 animals were allotted on weight equalization basis to each of the three dietary treatments. The animals were housed individually in wooden hutches equipped with separate feeders and drinkers. The study lasted for eight weeks during which performance, carcass characteristics and chemical parameters in the blood of the experimental animals were investigated. The mean final live weights of rabbits confined to the 100g/kg autoclaved SS diet (1194.29 was higher than that of their counterparts fed 10Og/kg raw SS diet (1068@; so also was the daily feed intake per rabbit. The mean values of these parameters for animals on control diet (0glkg SS) and those that were fed the autoclaved SS diet were largely similar. There were no significant differences between the admals on the various treatments for mean values of daily weight gain, feed efficiency and protein efficiency ratio, No significant difference (p0.05) was observed for the digestibility coefficients of crude protein, crude fiber, ether extract, ash and NFE. Rabbits on the control diet had the highest values of digested calcium and phosphorus.
Although not significantly reduced, the gross features of the blood visa packed cell volume (PCV), Hemoglobin (H), red blood cell (RBC), white blood cell (WBC) Mean cell volume (MCV) mean cell hemoglobin (MCH) and mean cell hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), tended to be lower for rabbits fed raw SS pods in their diets. Significantly higher (p<0.05) level of blood urea was also obtained for this same group of rabbits. The carcass traits showed that there was an enhanced efficiency of tissue laid down and higher carcass yield by animals fed the autoclaved SS pod diets. It was concluded that SS pods can be included in rabbit diets and autoclaving eliminated the negative effects of ant nutritive factors, which appeared to impair proper feed utilization in the raw SS pod diets.