CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS, MEAT QUALITY AND CECAL ACTIVITY OF GROWING NEW ZELAND RABBITS FED EUCALYPTUSINCLUSION AS NON-TRADITIONAL FEED ADDITIVES

Waly, Amany Hussien; Ragab, Ayat A.; AboEl-Azayem, Enayat H.; A. H., Quta E.; Mobarez, Samia M.

doi:10.21608/epsj.2020.96093

CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS, MEAT QUALITY AND CECAL ACTIVITY OF GROWING NEW ZELAND RABBITS FED EUCALYPTUSINCLUSION AS NON-TRADITIONAL FEED ADDITIVES

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ animal production institute

² 1- Dep.ofRab., Turk.and Water Fowl Breed. Res., Anim. Prod. Res. Inst., Agric.Research Center, Giza, Egypt .

³ 2- Dep.of Poult.Nut. Research, Anim. Prod. Res. Inst., Agric. Res. Center, Giza, Egypt .

10.21608/epsj.2020.96093

Abstract

An 8-week experiment was carried out to determine the effect of supplementing diet with dried eucalyptus globulus leaves or its aqueous extract on carcass characteristics, meat quality and cecal activity of growing New Zeland rabbits. For this, 225 weaned rabbits of 6 weeks of age were allotted to five treatments with three replicates (15 rabbits each). Treatment diets were the control diet and other four treatment diets which supplemented with 0.25; 0.5% dried eucalyptus leaves and 0.05; 0.1% aqueous extract of eucalyptus leaves, respectively.The rabbits were housed and fed in individual cages.At the end of the experiment, 15 rabbits were slaughtered (three rabbits/group) to evaluate carcass characteristics, meat quality and cecal activity.

Experimental treatments had no significant effect on carcass traits includedhot carcass, dressing and impiety intestinal weight percent except abdominal and shoulder fat % which were significantly reduced. Drip loss and cooking loose of growing rabbits meat significantly (p<0.05%) improved by the experimental diets. There were no differences between experimental diets in pHu of meat and small intestine while stomach pHu was significantly reduced.Forchemical measurements of meat qualityandconcentration of total protein significantly (P<0.01) increased as well as cholesterol and HDL decreased, alsomalondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations were significantly improved compared to those of the control.
The cecal length was decreased (P<0.01) in supplemented groups, while full and impiety weight were not significantly affected. The results of cecal activity showed that inclusion of eucalyptus as dried leaves or its aqueous extract was not significantly affected the concentrations of ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N); volatile fatty acids (VFAs)and pHu of cecum. The bacterial account significantly reduced with using eucalyptus as non-traditional feed additives. The current study indicated that eucalyptus could be utilized as an effective additive to improve meat quality and to reduce caecal bacterial counts in rabbits.

Keywords