EFFECT OF USING BAGASSE AS A SOURCE OF NATURAL FIBER INGREDIENT AND ADSORBENT MATERIAL FOR AFLATOXIN IN GROWING RABBITS RATIONS ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE

Abstract

ABSTRACT : This study was carried out to determine the effect offeeding dietary bagasse as a source of natural fiber ingredient and adsorbent for aflatoxins (AFs) in growing rabbits diets and to evaluate using dietary bagasse on growth performance, digestibility coefficients of nutrients, nutritive value, some blood constituents and economical efficiencyof New Zealand White rabbits (NZW). The study involved fifty four NZW growing rabbits of aged 5 weeks with initial body weight mean of 751.8±35.62 g.Animals were divided into nine equal groups and fed treatment diets for 8 weeks. The experimental groups were: control or basal diet (T1), basal diet supplemented with low dose of AFs (75µg total AFs/kg diet) (T2), high dose of AFs (150µg total AFs/kg diet) (T3), 3% of bagasse (T4), 6% of bagasse (T5), 3% of bagasse with low dose of aflatoxin (T6), 6% of bagasse with low dose of aflatoxin (T7), 3% of bagasse with high dose of aflatoxin (T8) and 6% of bagasse with high dose of aflatoxin (T9). Results of live body weight at 13 week of age of both T7 and T9 groups recorded numerical higher body weight value compared to control group (T1), T2 and T3 groups. T3 group recorded significantly (P . T7 and T9 groups showed a significant decrease in serum ALT, AST, ALP activity and cholesterol comparing with T2 and T3 groups.The results showed that the highest value of total PI recorded for T6 group followed by T5 group. Conclusively, based on the results obtained in this study, it was established that using 6% of bagasse in the rations of growing rabbit's achieved improvements in growth performance parameters. At the same time, presence of bagasse alleviated the detrimental effect of aflatoxin.