TREATMENT EFFECT OF LEUCAENA LEAF MEAL ON THE CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF RABBITS.

Abstract

A total of forty five white rabbit weaners were fed for 8 weeks on a control diet and four other diets containing 20% Leucaena leucocephala leaves that have been subjected to sun drying, ensilage, heat treatment or soaking in water. The rabbits fed the diet containing ensilled leucaena leaves had the least feed intake, daily weight gain and in general performed worse than rabbits on any other diet in most of the parameters evaluated. The rabbits fed the heat treated leaf meal diet ranked next to those fed the control diet which performed best in most of the parameters evaluated. The rabbits fed the diet containing sun dried leaves experienced alopecia. In general, the results obtained indicate that heat treated leucaena leaves could serve as a dry season feed ingredient for rabbits in the tropics.