GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF GROWING RABBITS FED ROASTED AFRICAN STAR APPLE (CHRYSOPHYLLUM ALBIDUM) KERNEL MEAL BASED DIETS

Abstract

A 12-week study was carried out to examine the effect of substituting dietary maize with roasted African star apple kernel meal (RASAKM) on growth performance of growing rabbits. A total of forty eight weaner rabbits (mixed breed, average weight, 590 g) were randomly allocated to four experimental diets containing 0, 5, 10 and 15 % RASAKM as substitute for dietary maize in a Completely Randomized Design. The rabbits were pre conditioned for two weeks, during which they were treated twice (once a week) against parasitic infestation with Ivermectin subcutaneously. The data generated were subjected to statistical analysis software package, to compare the means. Significance was accepted at P < 0.05. Roasted ASAKM had significant influenced (P<0.05) on daily weight gain and feed conversion ratio of the rabbits while daily feed intake was not affected (P>0.05). Rabbits fed 5 and 10 % RASAKM diets had similar (P>0.05) weight gain (15.17 g and 15.61 g) with those fed the control diet (16.24 g) while rabbits fed 15 % RASAKM diet had the least weight gain (14.07 g). It was concluded that RASAKM could be used up to 10 % to replace dietary maize in the diet of growing rabbits without compromising growth performance.