Abstract
Abstract An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of sweetpotato and its composite meal-based diets on the biological performance and bio-economics of weaner rabbit production. Thirty weaner rabbits averaging 0.35 kg each were randomly allotted to five treatment groups in a completely randomized design. Each treatment group was replicated three times. Sweetpotato meal and composite sweetpotato meal replaced maize at a 20% inclusion level. Treatment numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 contained the control, sun-dried sweetpotato meal (SSPM), boiled sweetpotato meal (BSPM), composite sun-dried sweetpotato meal (CSSPM) and composite boiled sweetpotato meal (CBSPM), respectively, at 20% levels of inclusion. The weaner rabbits were fed ad libitum throughout the experimental period of 10 weeks. Significant differences were observed for growth performance of the rabbits in average daily weight gain, average daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR) in the weaner rabbits using sweetpotato and composite sweetpotato-meal-based diets. The values of mean daily weight gain ranged from 16.09 g in treatment 3 (BSPM) to 18.47 g in treatment 1 (control). The values of average daily feed intake ranged from 42 g in treatment 3 (BSPM) to 50 g in treatment 1 (control). Moreover, the values of the FCR ranged from 2.47 in treatment 5 (CBSPM) to 2.70 in treatment 1 (control). Significant differences (P<0.05) were also observed in the bio-economics of production of weaner rabbits using composite sweetpotato meals. The cost per kilogram of feed, cost of total feed consumed per rabbit and cost per kilogram weight gain of the rabbits fed the test diets were significantly lower than the control diet. For revenue, no significant difference was observed among the treatments. Gross margins of CSSPM and CBSPM use were the same but both significantly higher than the control. We conclude that using sweetpotato and composite sweetpotato meal can be a cost-effective feeding method for weaner rabbit production.
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