Effect of Urea Treated Groundnut Shells on Feed Intake, Digestibility, Nitrogen Retention and Economic Value in Growing Rabbits

The experiment of the current study was performed at Rabbitry of Poultry Science Department and the chemical analysis was carried out at Department of Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Animal Husbandry and veterinary sciences, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar. The recent study examines the effect of different level of Urea (UR) and Soybean Meal (SBM) treated groundnut shells on rabbit’s performance and economic evaluation of the experimental diet. A total of sixteen male local black and white rabbit’s of Mini Rex breed weaning age 35 + 5 of having body weight range from 1065- 1170g were selected at random to four treatments, with each treatment diet for four rabbit’s. Metabolic cages were provided for each group of rabbits with separate facility for the feces and urine collection. Four diet’s were formulated for the current experiment which contain 0% urea treated groundnut shells (UR-0%), 1%urea treated groundnut shells (UR-1%), 2% urea treated groundnut shells(UR-2%) and 2% urea + 2% soybean meal treated groundnut shells (UR-2% +SBM-2%)respectively. The soybean meal was used as urease source. The formulated diets were tasted for 56 days. The present result showed that the feed intake in group D containing urea and SBM treated groundnut shells were significantly higher than the experimental diet A, B and C. The digestibility coefficient of dry matter (70.91) organic matter (78.89), crude protein (80.63), ash (73.96), NDF (72.12), ADF (58.13) and ADL (42. 10) were more significant (p < 0.05) in experimental diet D as compare to B, C and control group. The enhancement in feed intake and nutrient digestibility may be due to the addition of SBM as urease source which increase the urea hydrolyzation. The nitrogen retention was significantly higher in experimental diet B, C and D as compare to control one. The highest value of retained nitrogen (2.00) was observed in experimental diet D. The average body weight gain (5.12) and feed conversion ratio (3.11) were significantly improved for group of rabbit’s fed by diet D than the experimental diet A, B and C. Maximum profitability was observed in experimental diet D (Rs. 63.92) and was followed by experimental diet C, B and control one. From the present experiment it was concluded that the use of different level of urea and soybean meal treated groundnut shells increased the feed intake, nutrient digestibility, retention of nitrogen and body weight gain in experimental animals. Keywords: Groundnut shells; Urea; Soybean meal; Rabbit; Digestibility