EFFECT OF SAGE AND NEEM AQUEOUS LEAF EXTRACTS ON GROWTH, CARCASS AND HEMATOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF GROWING APRI RABBITS UNDER SUMMER AND WINTER CONDITIONS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Zoology Dept., Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta , Egypt

2 Animal Production Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of daily oral administration of aqueous leaves extracts of Salvia officinalis L.(sage) and Azadirachta indica L. (neem) on growth performance, carcass charac­teristics and hematological parameters of growing rabbit under summer and winter conditions. Rabbits were classified into four equal groups 10/each, in two trails of growth, 40 rabbit's /each trail. The first group was served as a control, the second received 200 mg/kg of body weight of aqueous leaves extract of sage (SAE), the third received 50 mg/kg of body weight of aqueous leaves extract of neem (NAE) and the fourth group were received the same dose of both extracts (SNAE). Daily oral treatment of both extracts was continued for consecutive 8 weeks.
     Results indicated that most of the productive, hematological and carcass traits were better performed during winter than summer season. Measured environmental data indicated that rabbits during summer exposed to long-term severe heat stress, where the mean air temperature was ranged between 32 - 35 ◦C and temperature humidity index ranged between 31– 33 degree, indicating long-term exposure of rabbits to very severe heat stress that caused a physiological and biological impairment due to negative impacts by summer heat stress. Results showed that aqueous leaves extract of Sage and Neem plants and their combination improved significantly the final body weight (FBW), daily body weight gain (DBWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and significantly decreased the feed intake (FI), water intake (WI) and rectal temperature (RT) compared to the control group. In addition, treatment with SAE, NAE and SNAE increased significantly carcass, liver, heart, testes and spleen weights, and no significant difference in weight of kidney compared to the control group. Aqueous extract of Sage and Neem and their mixture exhibited significantly increase in Hb, RBC, PCV, WBC and MCHC values and significant decrease in MCH and MCV values compared to control group. It can be concluded that there were significant interactions between season and treatments on the growth performance, carcass traits and hematological parameters except the FI and RT parameters.
Conclusively, the present study suggests that the dietary leaf extract has performed a good nutritional supplement by enhancing growth performance and health guidelines of APRI growing rabbits against stressful conditions especially during summer season.
 



 

Keywords

Egyptian Journal of Rabbit Science
Volume 32, Issue 1
January 2022
Pages 41-58

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