The present experiment was carried out to investigate the possibility of incorporating 10 and 20 % of olive cake meal (OCM) with or without 0.25% and 0.50% sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO 3 ) in the rabbit diets and their effects on growth performance, carcass traits, blood constituents, nutrient utilization and economical efficiency of growing rabbits. A total of 105 unsexed, New Zealand White (NZW) weaned rabbits of 4 weeks of age were randomly assigned to 7 equal experimental groups (15 rabbits each). Rabbits were housed individually in wire mesh cages. The first treatment served as control without additives. The 2 nd , 3 rd , and 4 th treatments contained 10 % OCM supplemented with zero, 0.25 and 0.50 % NaHCO 3 , respectively. The 5 th , 6th and 7 th treatments contained 20 % OCM supplemented with zero, 0.25 and 0.50 % NaHCO 3 , respectively. Results revealed that rabbits fed diet supplemented with 10 % OCM with 0.25 NaHCO 3 recorded the highest value of final body weight, total gain, daily weight gain and performance index (%). In addition, diets with 10 and 20% OCM with 0.25 or 0.50 NaHCO 3 numerically increased digestibility coefficient of CP and significantly increased (P≤0.01) digestibility coefficient of CF as compared with other groups. Whereas, 20% OCM without NaHCO 3 attained the worst nutrient digestibility for all parameters studied. Also, rabbits fed 10 % OCM with or without NaHCO 3 were more efficient in feeding utilization than the others. Furthermore, Rabbits fed 10 % OCM plus 0.25 or 0.50% NaHCO 3 diets had the highest significance (P≤0.01) in carcass % compared with others. Rabbits fed diet supplemented with 10% OCM without NaHCO 3 had the lowest values of all traits.Furthermore, the differences for serum cholesterol, triglycerides and albumin concentrations were highly significant (P≤0.01) whereas, the differences were significant (P≤0.05) for ALT, and non significant for total lipids, total protein, globulin, A/G and AST. Data on serum cholesterol concentrations were greater in for the groups that were fed 10 or 20 % OCM without NaHCO 3 (P≤0.01) compared with others. There were an improvement in economical efficiency (EEf) and relative economical efficiency (REEf) for rabbits fed diets 10% OCM, without or with NaHCO 3 , as compared with other groups.In conclusion, results of this study indicated that inclusion of olive cake meal (OCM) in growing rabbit's diet at a level 10% with or without sodium bicarbonate may be useful and have significant impact on growth performance, carcass characteristics, blood components and economical efficiency.
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