NUTRIENT DIGESTIBILITY OF AFRICAN WILD GRAPE LEAF (Lannea microcarpa) FED TO WEANER RABBITS

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to determine the nutrient digestibility of African wild grape leaf meal fed to weaner rabbit at Teaching and Research Farm of Department of animal science, Kano University of Science and Technology Wudil. A total of twenty mongrel weaner rabbits at the age of 4-5 weeks with an average weight of 643.3g were randomly allocated to Five (5) diets formulated with African wild grape leaf (meal) at 0, 5, 10,15 and 20% levels designated as treatments T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 respectively. Completely randomized design (CRD) was employed and each treatment was replicated 4 times. The experiment lasted for 8 weeks, and digestibility trial was done at the last 7 days of feeding trial. The results on nutrient digestibility values for dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), crude fibre (CF); ether extract (EE), Ash and NFE were numerically within the range of 85.36- 89.70%; 57.00-72.00%; 61.00-82.00%; 52.21-68.00%; 56.00-71.00% and 75.00-92.00% respectively. There were significant (p<0.05) difference on all parameters (DM, CF, EE, NFE and Ash) except on CP which recorded nonsignificant (p>0.05). It revealed that apparent nutrient digestibility percentages were higher for rabbits on dietary treatment 2, 3, 4 and 5 than control (T1) with exception of Ash. The general trend showed that as the level of African wild grape inclusion increased from T2 - T4, the values obtained for the various nutrients increased accordingly. It was concluded that inclusion of African wild grape leaf (meal) in the diet of weaner rabbits at various levels recorded significant nutrient digestibility without any adverse effect. Thus could improve performance