Effects of feeding increasing levels of vegetable oil or animal fat on digestibility, cecotrophy, performance and carcass yield of growing rabbits

Two assays were conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding increasing dietary levels (1.5, 3.0, 4.5, and 6%) of soybean oil (SO) or animal fat (pork lard - AF), on nutrient apparent digestibility and performance for growing rabbits. In the digestibility assay, 72 NZB rabbits were assigned to a completely randomized design with nine treatments and eight replicates. No treatment effect on the coefficients of digestibility of DM, OM, CP GE or the DM ingestion was observed, however it was observed positive effect on EE and NDF digestibilities. No effect of increasing dietary levels of SO or AF on cecotrophe nutritional contribution or DM and CP was observed, but the addition of 3 and 6% AF increased EE nutritional contribution. In the performance assay, 45 rabbits NZB were assigned to a completely randomized design with nine treatments and five replicates. The animals were individually caged immediately after weaning, where feed intake and weight gain were controlled up to 77 days old. No significant treatment effect on final weight, daily weight gain, feed: gain ratio and weights of carcass, leather, kidneys or intestine was observed. It was observed negative effect on daily feed intake and weights of liver and heart.