Replacing Maize with Sundried Palm Oil Sludge in Rabbit Diets 1: Effect on the Growth and the Carcass Characteristics

Abstract

Palm oil Sludge (POS) was collected in a semi-solid form from an oil palm processing mill at Apoje oil palm plantation, Ijebu-Igbo, Nigeria. The POS was sundried to a constant moisture content of 8% before incorporating into rabbit diets at 0, 10, or 20% levels. In a randomised complete block design experiment, fifty four New-Zealand white (NZW). Weaner rabbits were allotted to three dietary groups such that there were three replicates of six rabbits each. At the end of eighteen weeks feeding trial, all were slaughtered, dressed, cut into prima parts and subsequently separated in certain anatomical muscle groups of hind leg, shoulder, loin, rib and flank.
Inclusion of POS resulted in significant decrease in feed intake; daily weight gain was similar for both control and 20% POS diet but was higher than 10% POS ration. Including POS in rabbit diet had a significant effect on the dressing percentage of rabbit; however, when expressed as a percentage of live weight, rabbits on 20% POS diet had higher weight than the rest. The rabbit cut-up parts as absolute weight were not influenced (P<0.5) by the dietary level of POS except the leg portion which was similar to that of the control but higher than that from10% POS diet.
The muscle: bone ratio of carcasses were 6.06, 6.26 and 6.42 for rabbit on 0, 10, and 20% POS diets, respectively, rabbits fed the 20% POS diet had the highest fat content. The dietary level of POS in the diets did not influence (P<0.05) the anatomical muscle groupings of the rabbits except the muscle group II of the hind legs (semi-membranous and adductor muscles).


JARD Vol. 2 2003: pp. 14-24