COMMERCIAL NANO-NUTRIENT SUPPLEMENTATION IN GROWING RABBITS’ DIETS

Abstract

The use of nanoparticles in livestock is becoming more popular for improvement in performance. The study was conducted to examine the growth performance and nutrient digestibility of growing rabbits fed diet supplemented with Nano-nutrients. Thirty-two (32) cross bred growing rabbits of mix sexes were randomly distributed into four treatments consisting eight (8) animals each serving as a replicate. Treatment 1 served as the control without nano-nutrient, rabbits in Treatment 2 were given nano-nutrients orally (15g/10liters of water), Treatment 3 were fed diet supplemented with nano-nutrient at 62.5g/25kg of feed and Treatment 4 were fed both diet supplemented with nano-nutrient at 62.5g/25kg and nano-nutrients orally at 15g/10 liters of water. Feed and water were given ad libitum during the 9 weeks of the experiment. Data were collected on growth performance and nutrient digestibility which were subjected to ANOVA using SPSS version-21. The results showed that the treatments had no significant (P>0.05) effect on the performance characteristics and nutrient digestibility. However, the nanonutrient strengthens the animal’s immune system and the use of antibiotics was avoided. It was concluded that nano-nutrients could be included in the feed or water of rabbits without any deleterious effect