Effect of breed and graded levels of sun-dried pineapple (Ananas cosmosus) peel on carcass characteristics of growing rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) bucks

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the effect of breed and graded level of sun-dried pineapple peel (PP) on carcass characteristics of growing rabbit bucks. Thirty-two (32) growing rabbits (New Zealand White, Chinchilla and Dutch) aged between 6-7 weeks with an initial average weight of 762.25±52.66 g were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments (0 %, 5 %, 10 % and 15 %) in a completely randomized design in 3 x 4 involving three breeds and four dietary treatments with eight rabbits in each of the dietary treatments. The experimental diets and clean drinking water were supplied ad libitum during the experiment which lasted 56 days. At the end of the feeding trial, three rabbits from each of the treatments were used for the carcass characteristics. The rabbits were cut into part such as the head, loin, thoracic cage, skin, fore limb, shank, hind limb, testis and the relative organs (heart, liver, kidney, caecum, lungs, stomach, intestine, abdominal fat) and were weighed. The data collected were subjected to statistical analysis software (SAS) version 9.0. All the relative organs and retail cuts evaluated had no significant (P>0.05) difference except for the thoracic cage and shank which had significant (P<0.05) differences among the breeds where CH had significantly (P<0.05) higher values. The results of the graded levels shows no significant (P>0.05) difference in all the parameters except for caecum, intestine and hind limb with the highest at 10 %, 0 % and 5 %, respectively. In conclusion, CH breed is recommended for higher thoracic cage and shank weights and the 10 % inclusion of pineapple peel had higher caecum. However, there were no differences and no deleterious effect across all the treatments on all major carcass traits of growing rabbit bucks.