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