This study carried out to evaluate the effect of feeding diets containing olive cake meal (OCM) at 10 % and 20 % with or without citric acid at levels 0.1 % or 0.2 % on growing rabbits performance. One hundred and five weaning New Zealand white (NZW) rabbits about 4 weeks old were allotted at random to seven experimental groups with 15 rabbits in each group contained three replicates (five rabbits in each) in a growth trail lasted for forty days. The experimental diets were as follows: Diet 1 was used as a control without adding olive cake or citric acid, and Diets 2, 3 and 4 : contained 10 % olive cake and were supplemented with zero, 0.1 and 0.2 % citric acid respectively, Diets 5, 6 and 7 : contain 20 % olive cake and were supplemented with zero, 0.1 and 0.2 % citric acid respectively. Results could be summarized as follows:Addition of olive cake plus citric acid to growing rabbit diets significantly increased live body weight (LBW) and daily weight gain (DWG). Feed conversion ratio (FCR) was improved and mean values of feed intake (FI)were increased along with adding 10% olive cake plus 0.1% citric acid in the rabbit diets. Economic efficiency percentage (EEf), relative economic efficiency (REE) and performance index (PI) were higher in growing rabbits fed diets containing 10% olive cake meal plus 0.1%citric acid than the other groups. A significant increase in apparent digestibility coefficients of CF, EE, NFE, and TDN were detected while, there was insignificant increase in DM, OM, CP, DCP and DE % and apparent digestibility coefficient with addition olive cake plus citric in the rabbit diets. Carcass, liver, heart, giblets and dressing percentages in rabbits fed 10% olive cake recorded higher values compared with other dietary treatments. Cholesterol and triglycerides in rabbits fed diet containing 10% olive cake without or with 0.1% citric acid showed lower values

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.