EFFECT OF COTTONSEED MEAL SUPPLEMENTED WITH LYSINE ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF RABBIT BUCKS

Résumé

The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of cottonseed meal supplemented with lysine on growth performance of rabbit bucks. Twenty five (25) mixed breeds of rabbit bucks, 6 – 7 weeks old, were weighed and randomly assigned to five (5) dietary treatments consisted five animals per treatment in a Completely Randomized Design. Treatment 1 served as the reference diet (control) with neither cottonseed meal nor lysine, while T2, T3, T4 and T5 each contained 25% CSM with varying inclusion levels of lysine (0.00, 0.60, 0.80 and 1.00), respectively. The results obtained showed that the inclusion of lysine had positive significant effect (P<0.05) on all the growth parameters studied namely final weight, average daily weight gain (ADWG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR). The final weight values observed ranged between 1111.66 g (T2) and 1395.05 g (T1). The mean FCR values obtained indicated better records (5.59) in rabbit bucks on T1, but indicated poorest records (8.79) in rabbit bucks on T2. The results of this research show that cottonseed meal with different levels of lysine supplements have
significant effects on growth performance of rabbit bucks.