EFFECT OF FEEDING DIFFERENT LEVELS OF LINSEED MEAL INSTEAD OF SOYBEAN MEAL IN THE DIETS OF BALADY BLACK RABBITS BUCKS: 1- EFFECT ON DIGESTION COEFFICIENTS, SEMEN QUALITY AND SOME BLOOD PARAMETERS.

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Poultry Prod. Dept., Fac. of Agric., Mansoura Univ., Egypt.

2 Poultry Nutri. Dept., Animal Prod. Res. Inst., Agric. Res. Center, Dokki, Egypt.

Abstract

A total number of 30 bucks Black Balady rabbits was divided into two experiments (15 bucks per experiment) to study the effect of substitution of  soybean meal protein (SBMP; 44%) in the diets of Black Balady rabbits by soaked linseed meal protein (SLSMP; 26.26%) at levels of 0.0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. The digestibility and some blood constituents were studied in experiment 1 while semen quality was tested in the experiment 2.
In the experiment 1 results indicated that the digestibility coefficients for all nutrients did not differ significantly for containing 0, 25 and 50% SLSMP, while increasing the level of SLSMP up to 75 and 100% instead of SBMP decreased digestibility coefficients for all nutrients except ether extract (P<0.01 and P<0.001 respectively). The best values were recorded for (50% SLSMP). The same trend was observed when feeding values were expressed as TDN, DCP and DE.
Increasing the level of SLSMP did not affect on plasma total protein  (g/dl),  albumen (g/dl), globulin (g/dl), GOT (IU/L), GPT (IU/L), creatinine (mg/dl), triglyceride (mg/dl)  and urea-N (mg/dl) but increased, cholesterol (mg/dl) level significantly (P<0.01).
In the experiment 2, motility percent did not differ significantly among the dietary treatment groups, while 50% SLSMP had the best ejaculate volume (ml) and sperm concentration (x106), also had the lowest dead sperm and abnormal sperm than other treatments (P<0.001). Fertility percent increased significantly (P<0.01) by increasing the dietary level of SLSMP up to 25%. Also, increasing the age of bulk increased ejaculate volume (ml), motility (%) and abnormal sperm (%) significantly (P<0.01 and P<0.001).
In conclusion, SLSMP could be inclusion in rabbit diet of black Balady strain at 50% of SBMP or 11% of dietary composition without negative effects on digestibilites of nutrients, nutritive values of the diets, biochemical constituents of blood plasma, semen quality and fertility. 

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