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MEKARN Conference 2010
 
Live stock production, climate change and resource depletion

Effect of molasses supplementation on nutrient digestibility, growth rate and carcass straits of crossbred rabbits in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam (poster presentation)

Nguyen Van Thu and Nguyen Thi Kim Dong

Cantho University, Cantho City, Vietnam
ntkdong@ctu.edu.vn

Abstract

Two experiments were carried out in the Experimental farm of Cantho University to investigate the effects of different molasses (ML) supplement levels in sweet potato vine basal diets on growth rate, meat production, nutrient digestibility and caecum fermentation of the growing crossbred rabbits. The feeding experiment (Exp.1) was done on 60 growing crossed-rabbits about 50 -80 days of age with live weight range from 500 to 850g. A completely randomized block design was used with 5 treatments and 3 blocks with 3 ranges of live weight for both trials. The treatments were ML supplementation in the basal diets at levels of 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 g molasses/rabbit/day (corresponding to the ML0, ML10, ML20, ML30 and ML40 treatments). The digestibility trial (EX.2) was implemented on 30 rabbits at 12 weeks of age and lasted in 3 weeks.

 

The results showed that there was significant increase of DM intake when increasing molasses supplement in the diets (P<0.05). The growth rate was significantly (P<0,001) higher in the molasses diets, and reaching the highest value in the ML20 treatment. The weights of carcass and lean meat were significantly higher (P<0.05) in the ML20 treatment. The benefit was the highest for the ML20 treatment. It is concluded that the highest growth performance and economic returns of growing rabbits was in the ML20 treatment. There was an improvement of nutrient digestibility and total volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in caecum fluid when increasing supplement of molasses in the diets.

Key words: crossbred rabbit, molasses, sweet potato, nutrient digestibility, growth rate

                   Feed intake, growth performance and  nutrient digestibility of crossbred rabbits

Item

Block

SE / P

Treatment

SE / P

1

2

3

ML0

ML10

ML20

ML30

ML40

DM intake, g

46,5a

53,2b

56,7b

1,79/0,011

43,9a

50,8ab

52,1ab

56,3b

57,4b

2,32/0,022

FLW, g

2118

1982

1835

28,3/0,001

1768a

2035bc

2110b

2045bc

1935ac

36,5/0,001

Daily gain,g

19,9

20,0

20,8

0,31/0,171

16,9a

21,1bc

22,3b

21,4bc

19,6c

0,40/0,001

Carc. W.,g

912

990

968

25,5/0,145

863a

957ab

1010b

1053b

900ab

32,9/0,019

Lean meat W.,g

617

714

645

39,9/0,267

487a

678ab

779b

692ab

659ab

51,5/0,038

DMD,%

69.3

72.8

73.9

1,28/0,082

67.4a

70.4ab

76.6b

71.8ab

73.8ab

1,65/0,035

VFAs, μM/ml

202

176

166

10.0/0.096

137a

188ab

204b

194ab

188ab

12.9/0.043

Profit,VND

27294

27402

29789

 

18300

30214

34446

31165

26684