Effect of dietary mannan‐oligosaccharides onin vivoperformance, nutrient digestibility and caecal content characteristics of growing rabbits

Abstract

To evaluate the effect of mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS) on in vivo performance, nutrient digestibility, fermentation characteristics and caecal microbial populations of rabbits, 144 thirty-five days old hybrid Hyla were equally divided into three groups, one of which was fed the same diet without additives (control group), one with antibiotics (colistin sulphate, 144 mg/kg; tylosin, 100 mg/kg; oxytetracyclin, 1000 mg/kg) and one with MOS (1 g/kg of diet). Mortality rate, live weight, feed intake and feed conversion ratio were recorded up to 62 days of age. At 60 days nutrient digestibility was measured by acid insoluble ash method. The caecal content of 10 rabbits per group was collected at 62 days and analysed for volatile fatty acids production, ammonia content and microbial count. Rabbits from the control group had a significantly (p < 0.01) lower body weight at 62 days (1638.9 g vs. 1779.4 g and 1862.5 g, respectively for the control, MOS and antibiotic groups) while the antibiotic group showed a higher (p < 0.05) feed intake than the control group (127.9 g/day vs. 109.3 g/day). Rabbits from the MOS group had a higher apparent digestibility of cellulose (34.27% vs. 29.61% and 27.49%, respectively for the MOS, control and antibiotic groups) and, as a consequence a higher level of acetate in the caecal content (39.93 mmol/l vs. 34.21 mmol/l and 23.09 mmol/l, respectively for the MOS, control and antibiotic groups). Caecal microflora of the MOS group rabbits also had a higher fermentative activity in respect of protein source, as demonstrated by the higher productions of branched chain fatty acids. MOS and antibiotics significantly reduced the colonies of Coliformis (2.32 vs. 3.20 vs. 2.40 logCFU/g, respectively for the MOS, control and antibiotic groups, p < 0.01). Mannan-oligosaccharides at 1 g/kg of diet can be used as an alternative to antibiotics during the rabbit's growth period.

Growth Performance of Rabbits Fed Palm-Press Fibres-Based Diets

“…The final live body weights of rabbit (1718 to 1805 g) are close to 1746 g found at the same age in local population of rabbit in Tunisia [14]. The body weights of rabbits are also in the range of 1638.9 to 1862.5 g [15]. No medical prophylactic cure was provided to rabbits.…”

Growth performance, carcass quality, biochemical and haematological traits and immune response of growing rabbits as affected by different growth promoters

“…(), that when the sanitary status of the farm is satisfactory, the additives have a little or no effects in improving rabbit performance. In this regard, when hygienic condition of the farm is good, also the sanitary status of the digestive system is good, because of the few number of intestinal pathogens in build environment and, as a consequence, the additives are not able to give further improvement to increase feed digestibility (Bovera et al., ) considering that, when digestibility of feed increases under a dietary treatment including additives, it is mainly due to increasing digestibility of structural carbohydrates as a direct consequence of a higher fermentative activity of caecal microflora in respect of structural carbohydrates and proteins (Bovera et al., ,b). In fact, almost all the supplements (with the exception of MOS administered alone) are able to improve in respect of the control group the height/width ratio but this is not sufficient to improve growth performance.…”

Thyme oil (Thyme vulgaris L.) as a natural growth promoter for broiler chickens reared under hot climate

“…powder, extract or oil, the composition of the basal diet, and the environmental, hygienic conditions and animal age. In general, growth promoters had less favourable effects when animals were fed highly digestible diets or were raised in optimal environmental conditions (Bovera et al 2012;Pourmahmoud et al 2013;Ma sek et al 2014;Attia et al 2016).…”