Abstract
The objective of the present study was to evaluate effects of dried water melon and sweet orange peel (dwmop) meal mixture on some haematological and serum indices of growing rabbits. A total of sixty rabbits 7-8 weeks old with an average weight of 630 – 645 g were randomly divided into five (5) dietary treatments with three (3) replicates and four rabbits per replicate in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The dietary treatments include a control diet with no DWMOP in (T1), T2 (5.0% DWMOP), T3 (10.0 % DWMOP), T4 (15.0 % DWMOP) and T5 (20.0 % DWMOP) respectively. Feed and water were offered ad libitum throughout the experiment which lasted for 12 weeks. Data obtained were used to evaluate the haematological parameters (PCV, RBC, Hb, MCV, MCH , MCHC, WBC and its differentials ), some serum biochemical indices (Albumin, globulin, total protein, creatinine, bilirubin, AST and ALT). All the haematological parameters measured were significantly (P˂0.05) different among the treatments. Total protein, bilirubin and creatinine values were not significantly (P˃0.05) influenced by DWMOP, however, glucose level and activities of ALP and AST were significantly (P˂0.05) affected by DWMOP. It was concluded that inclusion of DWMOP at 20 % in the diet of rabbits does not have any deleterious effect on the health status of the animal.
Highlights
Citrus plants belonging to the family Rutaceae which include fruits such as orange, lime, lemon, sour orange and grapefruit appear as a well known promising source of multiple beneficial nutrients for human beings
The values obtained for White blood cell (WBC) are 9.19, 9.79, 10.02, 17.50 and 17.46 for treatments 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively
All the haematological parameters obtained in this study showed that they were significantly (P0.05) influenced by the dietary inclusion of dried water melon and sweet orange peel (DWMOP) meal
Summary
Citrus plants belonging to the family Rutaceae which include fruits such as orange, lime, lemon, sour orange and grapefruit appear as a well known promising source of multiple beneficial nutrients for human beings. Processing of citrus by-products potentially represents a rich source of phenolic compounds and dietary fibre, owing to the large amount of peel produced. These citrus fruit residues, which are generally discarded as waste in the environment, can be referred to as potential vitamin sources. Due to their low cost and easy availability, such wastes are capable of offering significant low-cost nutritional dietary supplements. The utilization of these bioactive rich citrus residues can provide an efficient, inexpensive, and environment-friendly platform for production. It is very palatable to grazing animals, it is typically uneconomical to feed wet pulp because of the increased cost of shipping (Kunkle et al, 2001)
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