EFFECT OF REPLACEMENT OF YELLOW CORN BY GROUND DATE STONE WITH OR WITHOUT KEMZYME ON PERFORMANCE OF GROWING MAIL RABBITS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University

Abstract

Forty-five New Zealand White weaned male rabbits of five weeks of age with
nearly equal live body weights were randomly allotted to five groups with three
replicates of 3 rabbits each. Five pelleted experimental diets were formulated to be
approximately Iso-nitrogenous. Treatment diets were formulated by replacing 50 or
100% of yellow corn in the control one by ground date stone with or without Kemzyme
(at a level of 0.5 kg/ton of rabbit feed). The results indicated that 50% replacement of
yellow corn ground date stone (with or without Kemzyme) significantly (P<0.05)
improved feed conversion efficiency of growing male rabbits during the experimental
period. Replacing of yellow corn at e . or \ .. % by ground date stone with Kemzyme
supplementation slightly improved digestibility coefficients of dry matter, crude protein,
crude fiber, ether extract and NFE. Besides supplementation to the replaced> . %
ground date stone with Kemzyme improved digestibility coefficients ADF, NDF and
TDN. Dressing percentage was significantly (P<0.05) higher with supplementing
Kemzyme to e . or \ .. % ground date stone, compared to the other experimental
groups. The obtained results indicated that ground date stone could be used on the
site of yellow corn (50% substitution) either without or specially Kemzyme
supplementation which showed best performance and economic efficiency.
In general, the results indicated that ground date stone could replace yellow
corn in rabbits feed by 50% either with or without Kemzyme, to realize the best
production and economic efficiency values.

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