PurposeIn the livestock industry in Nigeria, maize is a major source of energy and it is expensive because of competition between man and animal. Dry plantain peel of minimal cost was used to replace the maize fraction of the diet of rabbit in order to reduce cost. The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance characteristics of rabbit fed plantain peel.Design/methodology/approachThe feeding trial had five treatments, T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 in which the maize fraction in the diet was replaced at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 per cent, respectively. Completely randomized designs were used and each treatment was replicated thrice with three rabbits per replicate. The parameters taken were feed intake and weight gain on a daily and weekly basis. Feed conversion ratio, total feed cost and cost per weight gain were calculated.FindingsThe results show that there was no significant difference in the weight gain between the control diet (T1) and T3 (p < 0.05). The feed conversion ratio was relatively similar in T1 and T4. The cost per weight gain reduced from N53.57 in the control diet to N33.39 in T3 (75 per cent replacement).Originality/valueIn the livestock industry, maize is expensive because it serves as food for both man and animal. The results indicate that the feed cost of rabbit could be reduced by replacing the maize fraction of the diet with 75 per cent dry plantain peel.
The haematological and biochemical profile of blood of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fed on diets containing watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) seedmeal were evaluated using packed cell volume (PCV); haemoglobin content (Hb), white blood cell count (WBC), red blood cell count (RBC), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC), blood glucose, cholesterol, total protein, albumin and globulin as indices. 150 tilapia fingerlings of average weight 6.12±0.05g were acclimatized for a week, weighed and allotted into five dietary treatments; DT1, DT2, DT3, DT4 and DT5 containing 0, 15, 30, 45 and 60% Citrullus lanatus replacement levels with soybean meal, respectively. The diets were isonitrogenous and isolipidic. Each treatment was replicated three times with ten fish per replicate. Fish were fed 5% body weight on two equal proportion per day. The results from the study indicated that there was no significant difference (p>0.05) in the haematological and biochemical parameters of the blood of fish fed on the various dietary treatments.
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