Dietary Effects of Increasing Levels of Pigeon Pea Meal on Rabbit Performance

Abstract

Conventional feedstuffs in Nigeria are expensive, which has led to the search for cheap and locally available unconventional feeding materials. This study was therefore conducted to determine the dietary effect of roasted pigeon pea meal (RPP) on the performance of rabbits. A total of forty weaner rabbits (20 male and 20 female) Dutch × Chinchilla rabbits with an average initial weight of 725 g and between 5 and 7 weeks old, were allocated into four dietary treatments. Each treatment had ten rabbits and five replicate per treatment in a completely randomized design. The process of roasting pigeon pea seeds took 3 to 5 minutes at approximately 80 o C. The roasted pigeon pea meal (RPP) was used in formulating the diets used for rabbits. Treatment 1 (control) was maize-soybean based diet with 0% RPP while the other treatments contained 10, 20 and 30% RPP in the diets respectively. Diets were formulated to be isonitrogenous and isocaloric. The experiment lasted for five weeks during which data were recorded for feed intake and body weight. The daily feed intake ranged from 42.26 to 57.60 g; daily weight gain, 12.27 to 15.70 g; feed conversion ratio, 3.41 to 4.67 and final live weight, 1284.00 to 1434.75 g. None of these performance parameters were significantly affected by dietary treatments. It was therefore concluded that roasted pigeon pea (RPP) can successfully be included up to 30% in the ration of rabbits without adversely affecting performance.

Effect of different processing methods of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) on growth performance, carcass traits, and blood biochemical and hematological parametersof broiler chickens

“…By boiling 97.84% of trypsin inhibitor can be reduced in Pp seeds. Similarly, by toasting or dry heating, 89.82% of trypsin inhibitor can be reduced in the seeds (18,(32)(33)(34).…”

“…Amaefule et al (17) reported that the chemical composition of Pp depends on cultivar, geographical location, and growth conditions. Roasted Pp can successfully be included up to 30% in the diets of rabbits without adverse effect on performance (18).…”

Evaluation of pigeon pea leaves (Cajanus cajan) replacing alfalfa meal on growth performance, carcass trait, nutrient digestibility, antioxidant capacity and biochemical parameters of rabbits

“…Additionally, there are no adverse effects on the most meat yielding components except the reduction of pre‐slaughter weight, semi‐eviscerated weight and hind leg weight as the pigeon pea leaves content increasing. Some results on pigeon pea seeds suggested boiled pigeon pea seed meal could substitute 20% maize meal and 43.9% soybean meal separately in rabbit diets; moreover, up to 30% pigeon pea seed meal could be included in the ration of rabbits and cockerels without adverse effects on growth performance and carcass traits (Akande, ; Amaefule, Ironweed, & Ojewola, ; Amaefule & Obioha, ; Yisa et al, ). However, there is no published study on pigeon pea leaves available for comparison.…”

Effect of sweet potato vines on performance parameters and some carcass characteristics of rabbits

“…The use of alternative ingredients for animal nutrition has been of great interest to many researchers over several decades particularly, in developing countries, where conventional sources are usually more expensive (Akande, ). In Brazilian cuniculture, most of the ingredients used as part of the diets are grown solely for this purpose, occupying farm areas that could be otherwise used for growing grains for intended for human consumption and hence increasing the overall cost of the final product (Klinger et al., ).…”