CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF GROWING RABBITS (ORYCTOLAGUS CUNICULUS) FED DIETS CONTAINING GRADED LEVELS OF MORINGA OLEIFERA LEAF MEAL

Abstract

The study was carried out at the Livestock Teaching and Research Farm, Department of Agricultural  Education, College of Education Waka-Biu, Biu Local Government Area, Borno State. Forty-five cross-bred bucks (Dutch x New Zealand White) were used to evaluate the effect of inclusion of Moringa oleifera Leaf Meal (MOLM) on carcass characteristics of grower rabbits. The experiment has five treatments and each of the treatment has three replicates consisting of three rabbits per replicate making a total of nine rabbits per each treatment group in a Complete Randomized Design (CRD). The data were subjected to one way Analysis of Variance using SPSS (17.0) and means were separated using least Significant  Difference. Five diets were formulated at 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 % levels designated as T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 respectively. Results showed that most of the values did not differ significantly (p˃0.05) among treatments, except for the shoulder, loin, lungs and tail which differ (p˂0.05) significantly. Highest values of slaughter weight, dressed weight and dressing percentages were reported at 10% level of inclusion while shoulder, abdominal fat and feet were highest at 20% level of inclusion. Loin and abdominal fat reduces with increasing level of Moringa.