Effect of Partial and Total Substitution of Soybean Meal with Nigella sativa L. Meal for Feeding Domestic Growing Rabbits

• Published in: Proenvironment Vol. 15; no. 51; p. 375
• Main Author: AL-SHAAR, Nadia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cluj-Napoca Bioflux SRL 01.01.2022
• ISSN: 1844-6698; 2066-1363

This experimental study was conducted on one of the private local breeders’ farms in the city of Mosul/Iraq. The study continued for 60 days. In this study, 64 local male rabbits aged of 7-8 weeks, with similar weights (550 ± 13g), were used. The animals were randomly divided into 4 treatments. Each treatment has three replicates, with 6 rabbits for each replicate. In this experiment, the black seed meal (Nigella sativa L.) was substituted at a percentage of 0, 30, 60, 100% instead of the soybean meal for thefour consecutive diets, and these diets were equal in the proportion of crude protein and the level of the digested energy. The results showed significant differences (P≤0.05) in favor of the fourth treatment in total and daily weight gain, daily crude protein consumption, total digested energy consumption, totaland daily water intake, and water consumption percentage: Initial body weight, crude fat digestion coefficient, and crude fat percentage. Also, the results showed a significant decrease (P≤0.05) in favor ofthe fourth treatment in water transfer efficiency (ml water/g weight gain). There was also a significant difference (P≤0.05) in favor of the third and fourth treatments in the crude fiber digestibility coefficient and the proportion of crude fibers, while the results showed no significant differences in the other studied traits.