Rabbit intensification systems in Rwanda: feeding influence and growth
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Date
2023-02-24
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Scientific Research Publishing
Abstract
A study was conducted in Northern Province of Rwanda, from the College of
Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Busogo Campus located in Musanze
district to evaluate the effect of feed type on rabbit growth in rabbit intensification systems in Rwanda. The Complete Randomized Design (CRD) was
used and data were collected on rabbit growth weekly for a period of 12
weeks. The experiment was composed of three treatments replicated ten
times. The treatments included three types of feeds namely; cabbage combined with Mucuna pruriens added to local forage (I), cabbages combined
with Leucaena leucocephala added to local forage (II) and a control composed of other varieties of locally available forage, such as Bidens pilosa,
Crassocephalum vitellium and Galinsoga parviflora (III) which was considered as the control (Farmers practice). The feeds were given to ten rabbits
separated in individual cages, and each rabbit was considered a replicate.
Water was given ad libitum. One month old rabbits (weaners) were used and
data were collected after one week of adaptation for 12 weeks. The results
showed that the mean of weight gain after 12 weeks was 783.3 g, 760.7 g and
705.7 g for feed type I, II and III respectively. The difference between means
of feed types after 12 weeks was not significant (p > 0.5), which implied that
rabbit growth did not depend on the feed type. The mean weight gain after 8
weeks was 707.5 g, 661.4 g and 577.1 g for feed type I, II and III respectively.
At 8 weeks, the difference between means of feed types was significant (p <
0.5), which implied that rabbits fed on Mucuna pruriens combined with cabbage and local forage were growing faster than rabbits from other treatments
at 8 weeks. The researchers recommended that farmers should be facilitated
with feeding materials by the concerned institutions. Training of rabbit farmers and further researches on locally available feeding materials were also
given as recommendations at the end of this study.
Description
Keywords
Feed type, Rabbit growth, Forage, Intensification system