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Evaluation of Peanut Cake Replacement with Soybean Curd Meal for Growth Performance and Haematological analysis in the Diet of Weaner Rabbit

Silas, A.F.A.¹*, Ayo-Ajasa, O.Y.², Afolabi, T.⁴ and Onyibe, J.³

¹Animal Toxicological Laboratories, Food Tech Dept, Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi. (FIIRO)
²Animal Production and Health Dept, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State (FUNAAB)
³Biotechnology Department, FIIRO; 4Analytical Department, FIIRO

Malaysian J. Anim. Sci. 2022 25(2): 44-52

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Six weeks-old heterogeneous hybrids (Chinchilla ? New Zealand White breeds crosses) weaner rabbits (n= 40) were used for the feeding trials to evaluate the replacement value of peanut cake with soybean curd meal (SCM) in the diets of weaner rabbits. Eight rabbits each were randomly allotted to five dietary treatments with SCM meal replacing peanut cake at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% (T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 respectively). Eight rabbits were randomly assigned to each of the five treatments in a completely randomized design which lasted eight weeks. The rabbits in T4 recorded a significantly higher (P<0.05) weight at 1384.28g compared to the lowest value of 1367.41g in T1 group. The feed conversion ratio showed that treatment T4 had a significantly better feed conversion ratio value of 6.41 compared to 6.79, 6.57, 6.49 and 6.46 in T1, T5, T3 and T2 in that order respectively. The apparent nutrient digestibility of dry matter, crude protein and crude fibre in the treatment groups were comparable to those in control in all the groups, however, the ether extract digestibility was significantly highest in T1 and T4 (90.42% and 90.31%) while T5, T2 and T3 groups recorded lower digestibility values (87.77%, 86.34% and 86.06% respectively). There were significant differences (P<0.05) among the treatments for serum glucose with T4 having a significantly highest (P<0.05) value of 6.35mmol/L while 4.75mmol/L was recorded in T2. The creatinine and red blood cell values showed that T4 had significantly higher values compared to other treatments. The white blood cells ranged between 4.89 in T3 and 6.89 in T5. It was concluded that SCM is well accepted by the animal, it is readily digested and T4 treatment represents the best replacement level of peanut cake in the diet.