NANO-COPPER AS A NEW GROWTH PROMOTER IN THE DIET OF GROWING NEW ZEALAND WHITE RABBITS

Refaie, Amira; Ghazal, Mervat; Barakat, Safaa; Morsy, Wael; Meshreky, Samia Akaria; Younan, Goerge; Eisa, Wael

doi:10.21608/ejrs.2015.46697

NANO-COPPER AS A NEW GROWTH PROMOTER IN THE DIET OF GROWING NEW ZEALAND WHITE RABBITS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Animal Production Research Institute, ARC, Dokki, Giza, 12618, Egypt

² National Research Center, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

10.21608/ejrs.2015.46697

Abstract

Seventy two rabbits, 35 days old and weighing 622g average body weight, were used for the present study. The rabbits were randomly assigned into 4 equal treatments (n=18). Animals in treatment 1 served as a control group and were given basal diet without supplementation, while rabbits in treatments 2, 3 and 4 were given nano-copper in the diet at levels 25, 50 and 75 mg/kg diet, respectively. The experiment lasted for 8 weeks.
The results revealed that, rabbits fed diets supplemented with 50 or 75 mg Cu/ kg diet as Nano-Cu recorded significantly higher (P<0.01) final body weight and performance index also, recorded better feed conversion ratio during all growth periods than the control group. The group of rabbits fed diet supplemented with 50 mg Nano-Cu/kg diet significantly achieved the best relative growth rate percentage. Dietary supplementation with 50 mg Nano-Cu /kg diet significantly recorded higher carcass, fore part, trunk and hind part percentages comparing with the control group, it also significantly reduced abdominal fat by 28.4%. The Nano- Cu supplementation significantly (P<0.05) increased activity of superoxide dismutase enzyme compared with the control group. Copper content in rabbits liver significantly increased by increasing dietary Nano-Cu.
Dietary Nano-Cu supplementation significantly (P<0.05) increased the population of total bacterial count and lactolacillus counts and decreased the population of ureolytic bacteria, Escherichia coli and clostridium spp. Supplementation of Nano-Cu to rabbit diets significantly increased plasma hemoglobin, red blood cells count and lymphocytes percentage. Economical efficiency improved for rabbits fed either 50 or 75 mg Nano-Cu supplemental diet.
Conclusively, Nano-Cu is considered a new substitution for high dose of inorganic copper in growing NZW rabbits feeding and can be fed up to 50 mg/kg diet without any deleterious effects on production and meat safety of rabbits.

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