Effect of incorporation of cowpea and soybean pods in diets on feed intake, Digestibility and weight gain performances of rabbit

Abstract

We carried out an experiment to compared performances (feed intake, feed digestibility and weight gain) of rabbit fed ration containing cowpea and soybean pod shells. Sixty rabbits of 06 weeks old were used for the trial in a completely randomized block with 3 treatments and 5 replications, with 4 rabbits per replication. The treatments consisted of a rabbit feed ordinary used in farms (as control) and two other feeds, CP10 and SB10, where cowpea and soybean pods has been incorporated at 10%, respectively. Feed intake was significantly higher (p<0.001) in CP10 (70g/d) and lower in SB10 (59g/d). The intakes of DM and N was higher in CP10 (respectively 62g/d and 12g/d) than that in SB10. Also, cellulose intake in CP10 (8.6g/d) was higher than in the two others diets. Dry matter, Nitrogen and cellulose digestibility was higher in the diet with 10% of cowpea pods and low in that with 10% of soybean pods. The higher live weigh gain were fund in CP10 (22.10g/d) and the lowest in SB10 (12.13g/d). However, performance in the control diet was not significantly different from the two treatments CP10 and SB10. The feed conversion ratio, the feed cost as well as economic feed efficiency were not different (p>0.05) between the treatments. However, profit can be increased through reduction of production cost by using crop residues in rabbit feed. This is a good issue for smallholders in urban and peri-urban areas in Africa