THE COMPARISON OF TREATMENT WITH FARMATAN AND FLAVOMICIN ON FATTENING AND SENSORY TRAITS IN RABBITS

The effects of feed additive Farmatan (chestnut tannin) and antibiotic Flavomicin on fattening traits of 78 young rabbits were studied. Trial lasted from the age of 35 days to 54 days of age (3 intervals: 1st: 5 days, 2nd and 3rd 7 days) and weight gain, average daily weight gain (DWG) and average feed conversion efficiency (FCE) were recorded during each interval and entire trial period. For sensory quality rabbits were slaughtered on 81st day of age. In trial were two control groups, one with no additive (C) and the other with antibiotic Flavomicin (Fl, 40 mg/kg). Two trial groups were Farmatan (Fa, 3.5 g/kg) group and combined treatment with Farmatan and Flavomicin (FF, 40 mg Fl/kg + 3.5 g Fa/kg). Among treatments in trial were no statistical significant difference in DWG and FCE. Farmatan did not improve growth rate and FCE of any of examined intervals. Sensory quality was performed on 32 randomly selected (11 from Fa and 7 from every other group) rabbits by 4 trained panelists, so 128 observations were collected for every sensory trait. Longissimus chops were sensory evaluated for smell, tenderness, juiciness, flavour intensity, bitter off-flavour and other off-flavours. Statistically significant influence of treatment was in bitter off-flavour. The chops from Fa treatment had 0.41 and 0.42 (p ≤ 0.05) point less bitter off-flavour comparing to C and Fl chops, respectively. Otherwise, the use of Farmatan had not important influence on sensory characteristics of rabbit meat. Results obtained with Farmatan were comparable with Flavomicin; these findings together with beneficial effect of Fa on bitter off-flavor support the use of Farmatan as feed additive in rabbits.