SYNERGIC EFFECT OF ADDING OR COMBINING EITHER RAW OR EXTRACTED PHYTOGENIC FEED ADDITIVES WITH PREBIOTIC ON PRODUCTIVE AND PHYSIOLOGICAL TREATS OF GROWING NEW ZEALAND WHITE RABBITS

Abstract

A total number of ninety mixed sex growing New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits at age of 5 weeks and weighting 532 g were assigned randomly into six treatment groups, three replicates per treatment and 5 rabbits/replicate to study the synergic effects of combining either turmeric (as raw single phytogenic source) or Biostrong®510 (as purified extracted mixed phytogenic source) with mannan oligosaccharides; MOS (as prebiotic) on rabbit productive and physiological performance. The experimental period lasted for 8 weeks. The treatments were fed basal diet as control (C), basal diet plus 0.3 % turmeric (TU), basal diet plus 0.05 % Bio-mos® (BM), basal diet plus 0.015 % Biostrong® 510 (BS), basal diet plus 0.05 % Bio-mos +0.3 % turmeric (BM+ TU) and basal diet plus 0.05% Bio-mos +0.015 % Biostrong (BM+ BS). The study included the evaluation of growth performance, carcass traits, microbial examination, haematological indices, blood constituents, meat quality, histopathological and economical efficiency. The results revealed thatincrease body weight and body weight gain among all supplementation. The groups fed diets supplemented with either BM+TU or BM+BS recorded significantly higher body weight and body weight gain compared with control. The body weight gain increased significantly for groups fed BM+TU or BM+BS by 12.90 and 12.23%, respectively over control. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) improved significantly among all feed additives compared to control. Combining BM+TU or BM+BS improve FCR by 20.26 and 17.10 %, respectively compared to control. Also, dressing and total edible part percentage significantly increased for rabbits fed BM+TU or BM+BSmore than control by 11.11 and 8.52 % for dressing % and 6.95 and 6.76 % for total edible part %, respectively. Significant decreased observed in malondialdehyde value in meat for treatments TU and BM+TU compared to control and significant increase in glutathione peroxidase activity in treatmentsBM and BM+TU compared to control. Significantly increment in meat protein and significant reduction in meat cholesterolwere observed among all treatments compared to control. The lowest meat cholesterol value recorded by BM+BS and TU treatments. All feed additives recorded significantly reduction in pathogenic bacteria and significantly increased in beneficial bacteria. The economic evaluation showed improvement in relative economic efficiency by combining BM with TU or BS and achieved 138% and 131%, respectively. Conclusively, all feed additives were significantly improvement the productive and physiological treats for growing New Zealand white rabbits. Adding BM+ TU or BM + BS to growing rabbit diets recorded significantly the best value of productive and physiological treats and the higher economic efficiency compared to control.