Abstract

MARTINEZ, Melida; MOYA, Vicente J.; BLAS, Enrique  and  CERVERA, Concepción. The use of maize ear in rabbit diets: nutritive value and effect on fattenning performance. Agrociencia [online]. 2008, vol.42, n.2, pp.151-156. ISSN 2521-9766.

The nutritive value of maize ear for rabbits was determined by substitution of a standard diet (diet C) with 20 and 40% of maize ear (diets M20 and M40). Two experiments were carried out. In the first one, digestibility trials for dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP) and gross energy (GE) were performed with 24 rabbits. In the second experiment, 200 young rabbits were divided in two groups at weaning (28 d) and fed ad libitum with diets C and M20 up to 63 d of age. Feed intake and live weight gain were recorded from weaning to slaughter, and feed conversion ratio was calculated. The principal component of maize ear is the grain (88%) and, consequently, the chemical composition of maize ear is similar to corn, except for its higher fibre content. The digestibility coefficients of DM (64, 66 and 70% for C, M20 and M40) and GE (61, 65 and 70%) increased (p<0.001) with inclusion of maize ear in diet, but digestibility of CP was not affected. Digestible energy and digestible protein contents of maize ear were 15.2 MJ and 40 g kg^-1 DM. Rabbits fed with diet M20 presented lower feed intake than those fed with diet C (102 vs 107 g DM day^-1; p<0.05) but similar live weight gain (45 g day^-1) and, consequently, feed conversion ratio was lower in M20 group than in C group (2.28 vs 2.39; p< 0.001). Results from this experiment show that the inclusion of maize ear in the diet increases the digestible energy content, reduces the voluntary feed intake and improves feed conversion on fattening rabbits.

Keywords : Rabbit; maize ear; nutritive value.

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