IMPACT OF DIETARY SUPPLEMENTATION WITH MULTI ENZYME AND/OR PROBIOTIC ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE, NUTRIENTS DIGESTIBILITY AND BLOOD CONSTITUENTS OF GROWING RABBITS

Abstract

A total of 60 weaned New Zealand White rabbits at five weeks of age with an average body weight of 536 ±29.3g were used in the present study. The study aimed to investigate the effect of feeding a basal commercial diet supplemented with either an enzyme complex (Kemzyme) or yeast preparation (Actisaf) or mixture of them on growth performance, nutrient utilization and health status of growing rabbits. The animals were divided into four equal experimental groups (each experimental group contains 15 rabbits distributed among 5 replicates, each containing 3 rabbits ) fed on four diets, basal commercial diet control (diet 1), control + 1g /kg diet Kemzyme (diet 2), control + 10g/kg diet Actisaf (diet 3) and control + 1g/kg diet Kemzyme + 10g/kg diet Actisaf/kg (diet 4). At the 13 week of age, 5 rabbits from each experimental group were taken for the digestibility trial. The results of the study revealed that final live body weight, daily body gain and economical efficiency were significantly (P < 0.01) higher with rabbits fed supplemented diets than those fed the control one. However, the previous parameters were the highest (P < 0.01) with rabbits fed diet 4. The daily weight gain values (at 5-13 weeks old) recorded 25.3, 27.5. 27.0 and 28.7 g for those fed the four diets, respectively. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was significantly (P < 0.01) improved with supplemented diets than control (3.97, 3.83. 3.88 and 3.70 for diets 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Apparent digestibility (%) of DM, CP and DCP were improved by dietary supplementation. However, the improvement was significantly the highest (P < 0.01) by rabbits fed Kemzyme + Actisaf supplemented diet (diet 4). In spite of the elevation of levels of blood plasma total protein, globulin, albumin and phagocytic activity by dietary supplementation, all blood biochemical and hematological parameters were within the normal physiological range. The results indicate that Kemzyme and Actisaf are good growth stimulators to the growing rabbits and can be added together to the commercial diet to improve feed utilization and growth performance without any adverse effects on health status of rabbits.