Rabbit intensification systems in Rwanda: feeding influence and growth

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.