Nutrient Composition of Sesame Seed Cake and its Effect on the Growth Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Rabbits

Abstract

In a twenty-four week feeding experiment, 45 weaner rabbits of mixed breeds with an average weight of 722-750 g were used to evaluate the effect of inclusion of different dietary levels of sesame seed cake (SSC) diets on growth performance and carcass characteristics of growing rabbits. The rabbits were randomly assigned to the diets in a completely randomized design with nine rabbits per treatment at three rabbits per replicate and fed with diets containing 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 % SSC designated as T1 (control), T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively. After a two-week stabilization period, data on body weight and feed intake were collected from the experimental animals on weekly basis. At the end of the 8 weeks feeding trial, three rabbits per treatment, were slaughtered for carcass evaluation and analysis. Results obtained indicated that feed intake was significantly higher (p<0.05) for rabbits on treatment 50% SSC. There was increasing trend of body weight gain from control to higher level of sesame seed cake supplementation i.e. T1 (380.52 g), T2 (450.00 g), T3 (480.56 g), T4 (450.00 g) and T5 (530.55 g). The control treatment had higher feed conversion ratio than the supplemented treatments, rabbits on 100% SSC diet has lowest FCR. The results of carcass characteristics showed significant differences among treatments (p<0.05) for slaughter weight, dressed weight, dressing percentage, head weight, fore limb and tail weight. The dressed weight and dressing percentage were high in the group receiving 50 % SSC. The organ characteristics studied did not differ between treatments (p>0.05), except for the heart weight that showed significant (p<0.05) difference among treatment groups. The study revealed that sesame seed cake is rich in protein and could be used as a partial or total replacement as protein source without any adverse effect on weaner rabbits.