DIETARY EFFECT OF HYDROPONIC SPROUTED FODDER ON PRODUCTIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF RABBIT

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the replacement of commercial concentrate feed by hydroponic maize and sesbania sprouted fodder in rabbit production and reproduction. A couple of experiments were conducted using new white Zealand rabbits at the Advance Animal Research Farm of Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Science, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU), Dinajpur, Bangladesh. In Expt: I, a total of 24 post-weaned young rabbits of 7 weeks old were selected to study the replacement of commercial concentrate feed by hydroponic maize and sesbania sprouted fodder. The rabbits were randomly divided into four dietary treatment groups (T1, T2, T3 and T4) T1 considered as control and fed with only commercially concentrate feed and T2, T3 and T4 denoted the rabbit groups fed the diet comprising of 75, 50 and 25% commercially concentrate feed (CCF) and 25, 50, 75% hydroponic sprouted fodders, respectively. The percentage of moisture, DM, ash, OM, CP, CF, EE and NFE (%) content of hydroponic sprouted maize fodder was 85.21, 14.79, 2.50, 97.5, 10.92, 5.30, 2.94 and 78.34%, respectively. The moisture, DM, Ash, OM, CP, CF, EE and NFE (%) content of hydroponic sesbania sprouted fodder was 90.54, 9.46, 3.41, 96.6, 37.26, 7.21, 3.71 and 48.41%, respectively. The ash, CP and CF (%) was higher in hydroponic sesbania than maize sprouted fodder but the NFE (%) was higher in hydroponic maize than sesbania sprouted fodder. In Expt. II, a total of 12 rabbit does were selected to study the replacement of commercial concentrate feed by hydroponic maize sprouted fodder to investigate the reproductive performances. The rabbits were randomly divided into four dietary treatment groups (T1, T2, T3 and T4). T1 considered as control and fed with only CCF and T2, T3 and T4 denoted the rabbit groups fed the diet of 10, 20, 30 % hydroponic sprouted fodders, respectively. The results revealed that effect of 50% hydroponic maize and sesbania sprouted fodder in replacement with commercial concentrate increased the final live weight, live weight gain, feed intake and feed efficiency of young rabbits, the cost effective analysis also showed higher benefit in T3 than other T1, T2 and T4 groups in Expt: I. while 20% hydroponic maize sprouted fodder in replacement with commercial concentrate improved the final live weight, live weight gain and feed intake, feed efficiency of rabbit does and improving total litter weight and individual kit weight in Expt: II