EUROPEAN GROUP ON RABBIT NUTRITION

 

 

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RECOMENDATIONS AND GUIDELINES FOR APPLIED NUTRITION EXPERIMENTS IN RABBITS.

MAERTENS, L.(1), PEREZ, J.M.(2), VILLAMIDE, M.(3), CERVERA, C.(4), GIDENNE, T.(2), XICCATO, G.(5)

 

(1) Centre for Agricultural Research, Department of Animal Nutrition and Husbandry, Melle, Belgium

(2) Station de Recherches Cunicoles, INRA, Castanet Tolosan Cedex, France

(3) Dpto de Producción Animal - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

(4) Dpto de Ciencia Animal, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain

(5) Dipartimento di Scienze Animali, Università di Padova, Legnaro (Padova), Italy

 

ABSTRACT: Feedstuff tables are presented including the composition and the nutritive value of 53 raw materials used in compound diets for intensively reared rabbits. Each raw material is characterised by 23 analytical data and its digestible protein and energy values. Because of the importance of the fibre fractions in the nutrition of the rabbit, special efforts have been done to characterise the carbohydrate complex. The digestibility data were selected after a compilation of original literature data and a discussion between the authors. The methodology used, in the different in vivo assays, was evaluated accurately in order to judge the reliability of the data. Besides digestible and metabolisable energy values are also presented because they lead to a better mutual comparison between raw materials for formulation purposes. Finally, attention has been drawn that the presented nutritive values fit well with the proposed nutrient composition and show coherence in each category of feedstuffs.

More information about this work: World Rabbit Science