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International Journal of Molecular Veterinary Research
2012, Vol.2, No.3, 8
-
13
http://ijmvr.sophiapublisher.com
8
Research Report Open Access
Effects of Replacing Groundnut Cake with
Moringa oleifera
Leaf Meal in the
Diets of Grower Rabbits
A.A. Adeniji , M. Lawal
Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria
Corresponding author email:
feyidot@yahoo.com;
Authors
International Journal of Molecular Veterinary Research, 2012, Vol.2, No.3 doi: 10.5376/ijmvr.2012.02.0003
Received: 29 Jun., 2012
Accepted: 10 Jul., 2012
Published: 24 Jul., 2012
This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction
in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Adeniji and Lawal, 2012, Effects of Replacing Groundnut Cake with
Moringa oleifera
Leaf Meal in the Diets of Grower Rabbits, International Journal of
Molecular Veterinary Research, Vol.2, No.3 8-13 (doi: 10.5376/ ijmvr.2012. 02.0003)
Abstract
Seventy two (72) grower rabbits were used to assess the replacement of groundnut cake with
Moringa oleifera
leaf
meal in the diets of grower rabbits and determining its effect on growth; nitrogen digestibility and the economics of rabbit
production. There were six (6) dietary treatments with
Moringa oleifera
leaf meal replacing groundnut cake at 0, 20, 40, 60, 80
and 100%; each treatment was replicated three times with four rabbits per replicate in a completely randomize blocked design
(CRBD). Proximate analysis of
Moringa oleifera
leaves on air-cured basis showed that the leaves contained Dry Matter 93.4,
Crude Protein 24.8, Crude Fibre 11.1, Ether Extract 2.1, Ash 8.7 and Nitrogen Free Extract 53.5%; with a Metabolizable Energy
of 3 316.52 Kcal/kg. Results showed that the final body weight, body weight gain, feed intake and feed to gain ratio showed
significant difference (
P
<0.05) between the treatments. Weight gain values increased from the control diet up to the rabbits on
60% Groundnut cake replaced with
Moringa oleifera
leaf meal and there after began to decrease. There was also significant effect
of treatment (
P
<0.05) on the cost of feed per kg. The cost of feed decreased as more
Moringa oleifera
replaced groundnut cake in
the diets. Profit, gross profitability and feed cost efficiency increased as more
Moringa oleifera
replaced Groundnut cake in the
diets. There was high nitrogen digestibility among the treatment although was not significantly different (
P
>0.05). The study
revealed that
Moringa oleifera
leaf is rich in nutrient and can be used to replace 60% of Groundnut cake in the diets of grower
rabbits.
Keywords
Grower rabbit; Groundnut cake;
Moringa oleifera
; Growth; Economics of production
Introduction
Nigerians are among the lowest consumers of animal
protein in Africa, despite their numerous natural and
human resources (Egbunike, 1997). The average Nige-
rian consumption of animal protein has been estimated
to be less than the recommended minimum for daily
maintenance (FAO, 1997). Animal protein contains
essential amino acids which are more balanced and
readily available to meet human nutritional needs than
plant protein (McDonald et al., 1988).
Rabbits have been reported to contribute significantly
to solving the problem of animal protein shortage
(Taylor, 1980; Lebas et al., 1986).
Rabbits can be fed unconventional feedstuffs and
forage but, investigators used temperate forages which
are reported to have on the average higher Crude
Protein (CP), lower fibre content and thus higher
nutritive value than tropical forage (Oyenuga, 1968).
Feed accounts for the dominant input in animal
production ranging from 60%~70% of the total cost of
production (Nworgu et al., 1999).
There is the need therefore, to explore the use of non-
convectional feed sources that have the capacity to
yield the same output as convectional feedstuffs and
perhaps at a cheaper cost. The recommended policy is
to identify locally available feed resource to formulate
diets that are as balanced as possible (Gueye and
Branckaert, 2002).
There has been increasing interest in the utilization
of Moringa (
Moringa oleifera
) commonly called
“Drumstick tree” or “Miracle tree” as a protein source