EFFECT OF SUPPLEMENTING DOUM (HYPHAENE THEBAICA) TO DIETS ON REPRODUCTIVE AND PRODUCTIVE TRAITS IN RABBITS | ||
| Egyptian Poultry Science Journal | ||
| Article 5, Volume 36, Issue 3, September 2016, Pages 711-723 PDF (419.96 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/epsj.2016.168802 | ||
| Author | ||
| Mervat Nabil Ghazal | ||
| Rabbit department at Animal Production Research Institute (APRI) | ||
| Abstract | ||
| The present work aimed to investigate the effect of supplementing different levels of doum in diets on fertilizing ability of bucks and fertility traits of Hy-Plus rabbit does. The study lasted five months. A total number of 272 Hy-Plus rabbits (64 males aged 3 months and 208 females aged 2.5 months) were used in the present work. Animals were divided into four comparable experimental groups (16 males and 52 females each). The first group was fed a commercial diet and kept untreated (control group), while the 2nd ,3rd and 4th groups (treated groups) were fed the same diet but supplemented with 250, 500 and 750 g doum / ton diet, respectively. Results indicated that, age at first mating of Hy-Plus rabbit males significantly (p≤0.05) decreased, while weight at first mating and live body weight significantly (p≤0.05) increased due to fed diets supplemented with different levels of doum. Absolute and relative weights of testes; epididymis; sexual accessory glands and pituitary gland, as well as, scrotal circumference; testicular index and mating activity of Hy-Plus rabbit bucks increased significantly (p≤0.05 or 0.01) in descending order with diets supplemented with 750 and 500 g doum, respectively. Male and female sexual hormones significantly (p≤0.01) increased due to doum supplementation. Conception and abortion rates, litter size and weight at birth and at weaning, as well as, bunny weight at birth and at weaning were significantly (p≤0.05 or 0.01) improved descending by supplementing 750 and 500 g doum, respectively. Milk yield and composition and total preweaning mortality rates improved significantly (p≤0.05 or 0.01) by feeding rabbits on diets supplemented with doum. Conclusively, it could be concluded that, supplementing doum to Hy-Plus rabbit diets caused significant improvement in fertilizing ability of bucks and fertility traits of does. It can be recommended that 500 g doum/ ton diet gave a good result for rabbits and equal to the high dose. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| rabbit; doum; Hyphaene thebaica; reproductive; fertility; milk | ||
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