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EUROPEAN RING-TEST ON THE CHEMICAL ANALYSES OF FEED AND FAECES:
INFLUENCE ON THE CALCULATION OF NUTRIENT DIGESTIBILITY IN RABBITS

XICCATO, G.(1), CARAZZOLO, A.(1), CERVERA, C.(2), FALCAO E CUNHA, L.(3), GIDENNE, T.(4), MAERTENS, L.(5), PEREZ, J.M.(4), VILLAMIDE, M.J.(6)

(1) Dipartimento di Scienze Zootecniche, Agripolis, Università di Padova, Italy.
(2) Departamento de Ciencia Animal, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain.
(3) Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universitade Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal.
(4) INRA, Station de Recherches Cunicoles, Castanet-Tolosan Cedex, France.
(5) Rijksstation voor Kleinveeteelt, Merelbeke, Belgium.
(6) Departamento de Producción Animal, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain.

ABSTRACT: A ring-test on chemical analyses of rabbit diets and faeces was carried out by six European laboratories, members of EGRAN (European Group on Rabbit Nutrition), from five Countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain). Four samples of different complete feeds (A, B, C, D) and 8 samples of faeces, collected during the digestibility trial (EGRAN method) on 2 feeds (A, B) were analysed. Methodologies for dry matter (DM) and ash (ASH) determination were previously harmonised among the laboratories; crude protein (CP), crude fibre (CF), crude fat (FAT), fibre fractions (NDF, ADF, ADL) and gross energy (GE) were analysed using domestic methodologies. The feeds were significantly different in all chemical constituents with a good repeatability (coefficient of variation within laboratory from 0.5% for DM and GE to 7.5% for ADL). A significant laboratory effect was also observed for all chemical constituents. Anyway, the reproducibility s.d. (SL) was good for DM (coefficient of variation among laboratories, CVL = 0.5%) and GE (0.7%), medium for CF (5.4%) and fibre fractions and poor for FAT (17.8%). Similar results were observed for faeces analyses. The digestibility coefficients of diets A and B showed a significant laboratory effect in most cases, even though the diet effect was always much higher. The CVL was low for dOM (1.0%), dCP (1.5%) and dGE (1.0%) and high for dCF (15.0%), dFAT (10.5%) and dADF (14.5%). Finally, the variability among laboratories of dADL was exceptionally high (83.3%), ranging dADL from 7.7% to 22.7% in the different laboratories. The estimation of DE content of the two feeds was in good accordance among laboratories (CVL = 1.4%), with a range between 11.70 and 11.99 MJ/kg DM (P<0.01). Further efforts are needed in the harmonisation of analytical methodologies among laboratories, especially in fat and fibre determination.