Browsing by Author "Usman, A. A."

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    PERFORMANCE AND DIGESTIBILITY OF GROWING RABBITS FED CASHEW NUT WASTE BASED DIETS.
    (Department Of Science And Laboratory Technology, Nasarawa State University Keffi., 2016-04-09) Usman, A. A.; Oyewole, B. O; Aribido, S. O.
    A 56 day feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the performance and digestibility of growing rabbits fed Cashew Nut Waste (CNW) based diets. Twenty four (24) 8-9 weeks old, mixed breed rabbits with weight range of 980 - 1100g were used for the study. The rabbits were allotted to six treatments, with four rabbits per treatment, a rabbit represented a replicate in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) arrangement. CNW replaced maize at 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, and 75% in diets T0, T15, T30, T45, T60 and T75, respectively. The proximate composition of CNW was; dry matter 90.48%, crude protein 15.25%, ether extract 46.88%, crude fibre 3.34%, ash 4.58% and nitrogen free extract 20.34%. Performance characteristics showed significant (P<0.01) differences among treatments. Observed ranges were 1781.25(T0) –2031.50 (T75), 14.17(T0) – 18.75(T75), 66.94(T0) -87.48(T75) for final weight, daily weight gain/rabbit and average daily feed intake, respectively. There was significant (P<0.05) difference for feed conversion ratio in favour of T75. All the parameters evaluated on economics of production showed significant (P<0.01) differences in favour of T75. Digestibility parameters evaluated showed significant (P<0.01) differences in favour of T75. Rabbits fed diet containing 75% replacement value for maize performed better than other dietary treatments and it is thus concluded that rabbits can tolerate up to 75% level of CNW as replacement for maize.