Haematological Parameters, Serum Constituents and Organ Development of Growing Rabbits as Affected by Feeding of Processed Cassava Peels

The effects of feeding ensiled, sun-dried and retted cassava peel meal on the blood constituents and organ development were studied using growing rabbits in a 9-week experiment. Four diets were formulated such that the control diet did not contain cassava peel meal (CPM) while the three other diets contained 200 g/kg of ensiled cassava peel meal (ECPM), sun-dried cassava peel meal (SCPM) and retted cassava peel meal (RCPM), respectively. Thirty-two rabbits, aged 6 week-old of mixed breeds, were allocated to a completely randomized design, with eight animals per treatment. The rabbits were slaughtered and used for the blood constituents and organ development study. All the processed CPM had much lower concentration of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) than the unprocessed CPM indicating the efficacy of the processing methods. Among the processed CPM, HCN concentration was highest in ECPM, intermediate in SCPM and lowest in RCPM. With the exception of neutrophil and eosinophil, other haematological parameters were significantly (P<0.05) affected by the dietary treatments. While the diets had no (P<0.05) effect on serum creatinine and urea, total and conjugated bilirubin, serum glutamate oxalotransaminase, serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase and glucose were (P<0.05) varied by the diets. However, all studied haematological indices and serum metabolites were within the reported range for normal rabbits. Relative weights of selected organs were similar (P>0.05) among the treatments. It is concluded that inclusion of 20% ECPM, SCPM and RCPM had no deleterious effect on the health status and organ development of the growing rabbits.