Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

Curcuma longa and dietary plant oils for growing rabbits: Effect on apparent digestibility

Author(s):

Valentina Zunino ¹, Giorgia Meineri ^1*, Pier Giorgio Peiretti ²

Recieved Date: 2009-08-09, Accepted Date: 2010-04-04

Abstract:

This study was set up to evaluate the effect of the inclusion of Curcuma longa (CL, 3 g kg ^-1) in rabbit diets on the apparent digestibility of mixed feeds with 40 g kg ^-1 palm oil (PO) and 40 g kg ^-1 corn oil (CO). Forty weaned nine week old crossbred rabbits were randomly assigned to four groups of 10 animals. The animals were housed individually under standard conditions. Four isoproteic and isoenergetic diets were formulated with CO, CO+CL, PO, and PO+CL. After 1 week for adaptation to the diets and cages, the animals were fed ad libitum for 24 days. The apparent digestibilities of the four diets were determined in the last week. The faeces were collected over a period of five days using a nylon net placed under the cages of each trial, to avoid urine contamination. The dietary and faecal samples were analysed to determine dry matter, crude protein, ash, ether extract, neutral detergent fibre, acid detergent fibre, gross energy and acid insoluble ash (AIA). The digestibility coefficients were calculated according to the indirect digestibility method using AIA as an inert marker. The analysis of variance was used to evaluate the effects on the digestibility of the four different rabbit diets. The means were compared with a Duncan test and the significance level was set at P<0.01. CL can be used satisfactorily in rabbit mixed feeds with a CO supplementation and it resulted in a better digestibility of DM, OM and GE than the control diet. In rabbit mixed feeds with a PO supplementation, CL decreased the ADF digestibility and increased the EE digestibility.

Keywords:

Oil, Curcuma longa, digestibility, rabbit, acid insoluble ash

---

Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2010
Volume: 8
Issue: 2
Category: Agriculture
Pages: 435-438

---

Full text for Subscribers

---

Information:

Note to users

The requested document is freely available only to subscribers/registered users with an online subscription to the Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment. If you have set up a personal subscription to this title please enter your user name and password. All abstracts are available for free.

Article purchasing

If you like to purchase this specific document such as article, review or this journal issue, contact us. Specify the title of the article or review, issue, number, volume and date of the publication. Software and compilation, Science & Technology, all rights reserved. Your use of this website details or service is governed by terms of use. Authors are invited to check from time to time news or information.

---

Purchase this Article:   20 Purchase PDF Order Reprints for 15

---

Share this article :