The use of dried cassava chips in growing rabbit diets to improve growth performance and economic returns (poster presentation)

Nguyen Thi Kim Dong and Nguyen Van Thu

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

Abstract

 A study of using dried cassava chips in diets on growing crossbred rabbits was carried out to evaluate feed utilization, growth performance and nutrient digestibility. Two experiments were completely randomized design with five treatments and 3 replications, with sixty crossbred rabbits at 8 weeks of age with average live weight of 735±4,64g for feeding experiment (EX.1), but thirty crossbred rabbits at 12 weeks of age with average live weight of 1213±147g for nutrient digestibility experiment (EX.2). The treatments were supplementation of dried cassava chips at different levels of 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40g/rabbit/day in the sweet potato basal diets (corresponding to the DC0, DC10, DC20, DC30 and   DC40 treatments).

The results of  EX.1 showed that the DM, OM, ME intakes and growth rate were improved with increasing supplement levels of dried cassava chips in the diets, and the highest results in the DC40 diet (P<0.01). The weights of carcass and lean meat were the significantly highest in the DC40 diet (P<0.01). Profit was the highest for the treatment of DC40. The EX.2 indicated that the digestibility coefficients of DM, OM, EE, and NDF considerably increased when increasing levels of dried cassava chips in the diets, and the highest values  were found in the  DC40 diet (P<0.001).

It was concluded that supplementation of dried cassava chips in diets improved nutrient digestibility and at level of 40 g/day for growing rabbits gave high growth performance and better economic returns.

Key words: crossbred rabbit, dried cassava chips, sweet potato, growth rate, nutrient digestibility.

 Nutrient intake, growth performance and economic returns of crossbred rabbits

Figure 1. Relationship between supplement of cassava chips amd live weight gain in growing rabbits