1

Intake and digestibility of multinutritional block for rabbits, when three plants of semiarid
plows partial constituents of blocks, compared with Neonotonia wightii

Authors:
Gustavo Nouel Borges1, Miguel Espejo Díaz1, Roseliano Sánchez Blanco1, Patricio Hevia
Opazo2.
1
: Unidad de Investigación en Producción Animal(UIPA), Decanato of Agronomía de la UCLA,
Tarabana
gustavonouel@ucla.edu.ve
2
: Laboratorio de Nutrición de la Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas
ABSTRACT:
Semiarid habitat species has been evaluated: Calea berteriana(A), Waltheria americana(W) and
Mimosa arenosa(M), compared with Neonotonia wightii(N), when partial constituent of
multinutritional blocks(MB), ace protein source, at three levels of inclusion (13, 18, and 23%) of
MB, dehydrated elephant grass (0, 5 or 10%), dolomite (7%), cane molasses(50%) and grind
paddy ruffles (20%) of DMK of MB and has unique ration offered to 12 rabbits (4,5 months age),
initial live weigh has 2420+-253g and end there are 2201+-344g, after of to experimental cheats
of 21d, that has 3 fractions of 7d, there has rotated the MB of each species around three
selected rabbits; with 4d to adaptation and 3d for measurement of block intake and excretes
production; calculate the DM, CP and NDF intake and apparent DM digestibility. Finding that
W(46,32g/d and 62,45%) and A(41,43g/d and 56,48%) result with similar levels of DM intake
and digestibility ace N(52,40g/d and 65,1%). W and A can to be considered ace potential
sources for rabbits foods, will be evaluated in assays of grow and production.
Key words: rabbits, multinutritional blocks, Calea berteriana, Waltheria americana, Mimosa
arenosa, Neonotonia wightii.
INTRODUCTION
The present work had as objective to evaluate the use of 3 species coming from the semi-arid
atmosphere, Calea berteriana (Asteraceae), Waltheria americana(Sterculiaceae) and Mimosa
arenosa(Mimosoideae, Fabaceae), when they are compared with the Neonotonia wightii,
incorporating its dehydrated foliages and in an individual way, in blocks multinutricionales (BM)
for the feeding of mature young rabbits, determining its effect on the food consumption (FIND
and PC) and apparent digestibilidad of the dry matter (MS) of the same one.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The experiment was conduced in the Laboratory of Rabbits Experimentation of the UIPA,
Faculty of Agronomy, first trimester of the 2001. Three spontaneous native plants of the
University Botanical Park were selected, incorporated in BM that you/they were evaluated as
unique portion for rabbits. Using a factorial arrangement 4(plants: To, W, M and N) for 3 (plant
level in BM 13%, 18% and 23% of the dry matter, where they were had, also 10, 5 and 0% of
hay of leaves of grass elephant respectively and to complete 100% of the MS of the BM he/she
incorporated 50% of cane molasses, 20% of rice milled paddy and 7% of alive lime), with three
repetitions for treatment, for a total of 36 experimental units. The design was in divided blocks
repeated in the time, so that he/she had twelve (12) New rabbits Zealand x California (4,5
months of age), assigning them the factor plants, to those that were distributed three rabbits that
received each one of the levels of the species that they compose the BM in every period of time
at random. The animals had an initial weight of 2420+-353g and final of 2201+-344g, after 21
days; a habituate period of 4 days and one period of taking of observations of 3 days, having
three periods of time of 7 days each one, with a total of 21 days. For each rabbit in every
experimental period 2 consumption observations and gathering were had excrete (the last two
days of every period), so that he/she had 6 repetitions for treatment. They lodged rabbits in
galvanised individual cages, with automatic drinking troughs; each cage with tray for gathering of
grounds with plastic mesh of 4mm of diameter of holes, separating urine grounds. The BM was
Gustavo Nouel Borges et al., UCLA-Agronomía
Agosto del 2002
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manufactured at the same time, dryings 48h at 60°C and they stored to ambient temperature(+-
25°C) in polyethylene bags. The grounds were gathered daily, they were weighed and they
dehydrated at 60°C for 48h, for later analysis. He/she was carried out chemical analysis of the
BM and collected grounds, processing them as Preston(1995 describes it), determining: dry
matter (110°C), ash and crude protein(CP) for the methods of the AOAC(1984), insoluble fibre in
neutral detergent (NDF) for the methodology VanSoest(1994). Estimating the apparent
digestibilidad for the dry matter for difference among consumed and residual in the grounds. The
ANAVAR was carried out for the factors and its interactions; separating stockings when they
were significant for Tukey; the covariance, consumption of NDF was analysed or of CP, for the
apparent digestibilidad of the dry matter. The data were processed with Statistix for
Windows(1996).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The forages study object can be located in three groups by their content of CP, two species of
contained first floor (10,99 to 12,9% CP A and W) associated to that the flour of the whole plant
was used, one of intermediate content (in the reference species N, 21%) and one of high
content of raw protein (33,29% PC) in M since alone the foliage was used. The chemical
composition of the resulting blocks indicates that I eat source of food potential for rabbits they
are low in protein (3,78 to 8,84% CP), this associated to the high use of molasses like energy
source in the production of the block and to the incorporation of lime like cement, that which
reduces the density proteica. The content of ashes is high (14% on the average), what is related
with the use of lime that adds 7 additional % of hydroxide of calcium directly to the block. The
fibre content (11,24 to 19,46% NDF) it is near to the appropriate range (27 to 42% of NDF) for
portions of rabbits, as Gidenne et al.(1998). When one observes the consumption of MS
reached for each species (Table 1), one has that the N stays above all in consumption of
DM(52,4 g/d) but the A and W presents similar levels of consumption (41,43 and 46,32 g/d
respectively), locating M in a third place, the animals that consumed these blocks presented
losses of hair and important weight; the consumption smaller than M could be influenced by a
high content of the amino acid mimosina, since this gender of leguminous is characterised by it
(D'Mello, 1989); all below the average of 100 and 175 mature g/d/rabbit (Lebas et al., 1997;
Maertens and Villamide, 1998), the first floor consumption could be associated to the high
hardness of the block, necessary to avoid big waste to the moment of being consumed; in tests
preliminary carried out by Espejo (2001) they show that inferior densities to 0,7g/cm3 increase
the losses of foods on 10% of the weight offered as block and as Amici et al.(1998) when it is
used less than 40% of molasses in the blocks multinutritional it becomes soft and fragile, in this
case the blocks had densities between 0,81 and 0,88g/cm3. The fibre consumption affected the
daily production of grounds positively, in relation to the percentage of inclusion of the species,
presenting the smallest excretion at the biggest level in inclusion of the plants (23%) with
14,55g/d of dry grounds at 60°C(hs60) with a consumption of 6,35g/d of FIND and the biggest
excretion with the smallest level in inclusion of the plants (13%) with 19,38 hs60 g/d with a
consumption of 7,67g/d of FIND, what is fully coincident with the digestive physiology of the
rabbits, which increase the production of hard grounds (fibrous) with the increment of the fiber
consumption in the portion (Lebas et al., 1997). In connection with the evaluated plants, the
consumption of FIDN was inside the normal ranges for portions of rabbits, which varies among
12 and 22g/d/animal of crude fibre (Gidenne et al., 1998). When one makes the analysis of the
variables for factors, differences are gotten for all the considered variables, except for the
digestibilidad of the DM, although when is corrected with the covariable CP or NDF differences
they were gotten among evaluated species; but differences were not gotten among levels of the
same ones inside the BM; but, if one observes effect of interaction species vs inclusion level for
the case of consumption (of DM, CP and NDF), which is of characteristic positive, with the
tendency to increase the answer of each variable with the increment of the inclusion level, so
that the factor level doesn't present differences, for the individual effect of each species. When
comparing with shrub species like the Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium, used fresh
as source of PC for rabbits allowed consumption of 1,51gPC(7,17g of MS/animal/d) and
Gustavo Nouel Borges et al., UCLA-Agronomía
Agosto del 2002
 3
1,42gPC(5,86g of MS/animal/d) respectively in work carried out by Onwudike(1995), evidencing
that the 1,89g PC/animal/d (coming from W) to 2,30g PC/animal/d of the best treatments as for
consumption of PC, they are superior values to these forages and that they allow to demonstrate
their potential value as source of PC, but that they should be offered in more proportion inside
the portion to value them sufficiently in production.
CONCLUSIONS
The species W and TO, they present qualities that make them eligible as forages in portions for
rabbits, when they are part of BM. Since they presented consumption levels and apparent
digestibilidad of the MS similar with the N, with the advantage of being spontaneous in areas
whose precipitation’s annual stockings are inferior at 700mm per year.
GRATEFULNESS:
To the CDCHT of the UCLA to subsidize the investigation with the Project 032-AG-2001.

Table1. Result of the Analysis of the Variables and the Effects of the Considered Factors

Factors Intake Intake Intake Aparent Aparent Aparent

DM g/d CP g/d NDF g/d Digestibility Digestibility Digestibility
DM% DM DM Corrected
Corrected by by intake CP
intake NDF covariable
covariable (p=0,0063)
(p=0,0046)
W 46,32ab 1,69b 8,68a 62,45a 56,86c 67,39ª
M 34,80b 2,55a 4,55b 62,66a 70,72a 59,18bc
A 41,43ab 1,64b 7,90a 56,48a 54,48c 62,89b
N 52,40a 2,77a 6,99ab 65,11a 64,63b 57,23c
SE 1,67 0,08 0,29 1,96 1,80 1,82
Probability 0,0043 0,0000 0,0000 0,4614 0,0104 0,02232
plant species
Nivel 13% 95,3 2,26 7,67 57,10 54,84b 56,13b
Nivel 18% 89,49 2,20 705 61,52 62,04ab 61,80ab
Nivel 23% 77,64 2,02 6,35 66,4 68,13a 67,08ª
Probability 0,0993 0,4309 0,1817 0,1649 0,0163 0,0591
level of
species
Probability 0,0000 0,0000 0,0000 0,4054 0,7141 0,6870
Interaction
species vs
level
Note: different letters in oneself column represents highly significant or significant differences
(P<0,01 or P<0,05) among means

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