Growth performance and carcass characteristics of weaned rabbits fed tomato fruit waste meal based diets
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Abstract
An eight week feeding trial was conducted to examine the effect of tomato fruit waste meal (TFWM) based-diets on the performance and carcass characteristics of weaned rabbits. Twenty eight (28) weaned rabbits were used. Seven rabbits were randomly assigned to each dietary treatment with each rabbit serving as replicate using a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Four dietary treatments were formulated such that TFWM was included at 0, 5, 10, and 15% levels in T1, T2, T3, and T4, respectively. Water and feed were provided ad libitum. Growth performance characteristics were evaluated. At the end of the feeding trial, three (3) rabbits from each treatment were randomly selected for carcass evaluation. Results showed that growth performance parameters were not significantly (P>0.05) affected by dietary treatments except the final weight gain and feed conversion ratio. Rabbits fed 5% TFWM diet had the best final weight (1317.00g/rabbit) followed by those fed 10% TFWM (1300.00g/rabbit). The result on growth performance showed that inclusion of TFWM at 5% level improved the FCR (1.05). All carcass parameters and internal organs were also not significantly (P>0.05) affected by dietary treatments except the kidney, visceral fat and spleen. Based on the results of this study, inclusion of tomato fruit waste meal up to 10% in rabbit diets is nutritionally adequate for adoption by farmers for better growth performance and carcass yield.
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