Abstract
A 12 week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the feed effect on carcass characteristics, haematological parameters and reproductive tract morphometry of female rabbits fed cassava leaf meal diets. The study was conducted at the University of Agriculture Makurdi, Livestock Teaching and Research Farm. Sixteen weaned rabbits (4 weeks old) were fed four diets in a completely randomised design experiment. Diet 1 contained no cassava leaf meal (CLM), while Diets 2, 3 and 4 has maize replaced with cassava leaf meal at 10, 20 and 30% CLM respectively. Haematological parameters of the rabbits did not show any significant difference between treatments. There was also no significant difference on the reproductive tract morphometry except on the length of the left oviduct and the weight of the vagina. Sun dried CLM has no adverse effect on carcass yield, visceral organ weight, haematological characteristics and reproductive tract morphometry of female rabbits. This suggests that sun dried cassava leave meal in diet to replace maize up to 30% can support visceral organ development, haematological characteristics and female reproductive tract development in rabbits. Further studies are necessary to determine the reproductive and growth performance of rabbits fed CLM diets at higher levels of replacement.
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