Evaluation of Growth Performance and Haematology of Weaner Rabbits Fed Varied Levels of Paw-Paw (Carica papaya) Leaf Meal

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of varying levels of pawpaw leaf meal on growth performance and haematology of weaner rabbits. 24 mongrel weaner rabbits aged 5-7 weeks and ranging from 0.3 - 0.7kg in weight were randomly assigned to four treatment groups of six rabbits in a completely randomized design. Treatment 1 served as control diet with 0% pawpaw leaf meal while treatment 2, 3 and 4 contained 5%, 10% and 15% of pawpaw leaf meal respectively. The study lasted for 56days with ad libitum feeding. The animals were housed per replicates in pen units and weighed weekly. Initial body weight, final body weight, total weight gain, total feed intake were taken and feed conversion ratio calculated to determine growth performance. Blood was collected into sterile bottles containing ethylenediamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) as an anticoagulant at the end of the study. The blood samples were analysed for packed cell volume (PCV), Red blood cell (RBC), Haemoglobin (Hb), White blood cell (WBC) and Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin Concentration (MCHC), Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) were calculated. Performance result revealed that feed intake significantly (p<0.05) decreased with the inclusion of pawpaw leaf meal but did not affect other parameters. Pawpaw leaf meal significantly improved haematological parameters (p<0.05) with best results from the group fed 5%. It can be concluded that moderate inclusion of pawpaw leaf meal in rabbit diets did not affect growth performance but improved the health of the rabbits.