PRODUCTIVE AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE OF GROWING RABBITS AS AFFECTED BY PEPPERMINT OIL AND VITEX AGNNUS EXTRACT DURING SUMMER SEASON

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Anim. Prod. Res. Instit., Agric. Res. Cent., Egypt

2 Livestock Research Department, Arid Land Cultivation Research Institute - City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications, (SRTA-City) ,Alexandria, Egypt.

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of peppermint oil (PO) and/or Vitex Agnnus leaf extract (VALex) supplementations on growth performance of rabbits during summer season. Forty-eight Californian growing male rabbits aged 35 days with initial body weight of 640±34.7g were randomly divided into four equal groups. Rabbits in control group(C) were fed a basal diet without supplementation (1st group). The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th groups were fed basal diet supplemented with 800 mg/kg diet of PO, orally 1 ml VALex /kg body weight and 800 mg/kg diet of PO plus orally 1 ml VALex / kg body weight, respectively.
Results are summarized as follows:
1- Increasing in final body weight (BW) and average body weight gain (ABWG) for all treated groups with PO and /or VALex as compared to control group.
2-Tested supplementations had insignificant effect on feed intake (FI), while feed conversion ratio (FCR) was significantly improved by 22.66%, 24.7% and 20.9% for the treated groups with PO, VALex and their combination groups, respectively, versus the control group.
3- Tested supplementations significantly (P ≤0.05) improved Pre-slaughter weight with those for control group, while insignificant differences were existed in carcass and edible parts.
4-Supplementations significantly decreased blood triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein (HDL) and low density lipoprotein (LDL) to control group, while supplemented groups did not represent any concentrations, alanine and aspartate  aminotransferase (AST and ALT) and dementing malonyaldehyde (MDA), while  the groups supplied with PO and Vitex Agnnus extract had significantly high total antioxidant capacity (TAC) level as compared with those of the control group.
5- Total antibody IgG significantly increased for all supplemented groups with PO and /or VALex compared statistically change inIgM.
6- The best value of economic efficiency (EE) was recorded for all experimental groups rabbits fed diet supplemented with peppermint oil and  vitex agnnus extract in summer season than the control group while vitex agnnus extract group  indicated the best results.
Conclusively, it could be recommended that using peppermint oil and Vitex Agnnus extract could be a good tool for maximizing the growth performance, physiological status and immune response for growing rabbits under summer conditions.
 

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