Sadek M. F., Fatma,G. Ahmed , Hanan A.M.Hassanein, Marvat, M. Arafa, and Elham M.Aref( 2010). Using of azolla silage in growing rabbits feedingEgyptian Journal of Rabbit Science, 20 (2) 67 – 82(2010)
Abstract: The present study was carried out to determine the effect of feeding two Azolla pennata sources as silage with corn cobs (cc) as partial replacements of the complete feed diet CFD as control diet of New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits on growth performance, nutrients digestibility some blood parameters, carcass characteristics and economic efficiency ECE. Forty New Zealand White rabbits, seven weeks old with an average initial live body weight 806.74 gm were divided into five excremental groups (8 rabbits in each) for the feeding trail as follow: (S0) rabbits which fed the complete feed diet while other groups S1, S2, S3 and S4 were fed the complete feed diet, in which 30% was replaced by one of the four types of silage on DM intake basis. Rabbits fed the experimental diets till fourteen weeks old, then digestibility trail was carried out using three animals for each group which were slaughtered for carcass characteristics and blood parameters. The results showed little differences in chemical composition between CAz and Paz but CAz had no pb+2 or Cd+2 compared to PAz. Rabbits fed the diet contained 60% CAz (S2) had the best daily weight gain DWG, the values did n,t differ significantly between the experimental groups and tended to be higher than the control group. Digestion coefficient values of all types of silage diets were higher than control diet. Non significant differences were observed between groups in carcass characteristics and rabbits fed (S2) had the highest dressing percentage DP% value. Serum constituents values didn't differ significantly, however total protein, albumin and globulin values increased as the level of azolla silage increased in the diets and silage's groups had higher values than control group. Silage's diets had better economic efficiency ECE than control diet, but the diet which contained 60% PAz silage (S4) was economically the best diet. It could be concluded that ensiled azolla with agricultural roughages can be economically included in rabbits diets up to 30% without any adverse effects on rabbit's performance under the local condition.
Keywords: (Rabbits, Azolla silage, growth, digestibility, carcass, serum constituent, economic efficiency . )
