EFFECT OF GROUNDNUT HAULMS SUPPLEMENTATION ON PERFORMANCE AND FEED DIGESTIBILITY OF MONGREL RABBIT IN SAHEL SAVANNAH ZONE OF NIGERIA

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in Teaching and Research Farm, Binyaminu Usman Polytechnic, Hadejia. To determine the effect of groundnut haulms supplementation in the diet of mongrel rabbit. Twelve weaned mongrel rabbits average age of 14 weeks were purchased from Hadejia market. The experimental animals were allotted in to 4 dietary treatments (supplemented with groundnut haulms) : T1, T2, T3 and T4 0, 5, 10 and 15%, respectively. Twelve rabbits were used with three rabbits per treatment. The experiment lasted for 6 weeks during which water and feed was provided ad libitum. Antibiotics and multivitamins were provided to experimental rabbits to prevent and manage infectious disease. Parameters measured were initial weight gained, final body weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio (calculated) changes in organ weights and feed digestibility. All data generated were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) significance (P>0.05) differences of means were separated by using Duncan multiples range using SAS. The result indicated that supplementation of groundnut haulms significantly affected daily and weekly body weight changes. It is therefore concluded that incorporation of groundnut haulms in the diets of rabbits was safe and can be supplemented partially or fully as protein sources and use as a supplementation to weaner rabbits in the diets without adverse effects on the performance and feed digestibility of growing rabbit.