Effect of dietary acidifier on intestinal pH of New Zealand White rabbit

Abstract

The microflora condition in the small intestine of weaning rabbits hasn’t developed yet. The use of acidifiers in rabbit feed aims to suppress harmful microorganisms and digestive disorders, especially in weaning rabbits. This research used different levels of acidifier as feed additives for weaning rabbits given on pellet feed. The acidifier addition level was control (T0), 0.1% (T1), 0.2% (T2) and 0.3% (T3). The parameter measured was the pH of the different parts of the small intestine. The research used 64 weaning rabbits (35 days old) which were kept for 6 weeks. Parameter measured was the pH of the parts of the small intestine consisting of the duodenum, jejunum and ileum. This research used a randomized group design with 4 treatments and 8 replications. The results showed that the addition of acidifiers had no significant difference effect (P>0.05) on pH of the duodenum and ileum, but there was a trend to decrease pH in all parts of intestine. While, the effect of acidifiers showed significant differences (P<0.05) on pH of jejunum. The conclusion is that the use of acidifier with a level of 0.3% gives the best effect to decrease of intestine pH of New Zealand White Rabbits.