Digestibilidad fecal de nutrientes en dietas con forrajes tropicales en conejos: Comparación entre métodos directo e indirecto

a study was carried out to compare the nutrient faecal digestibility in diets with tropical forages in fattening rabbits, determinated by total collection (direct) and acid-insoluble ash (indirect) methods. seventy two new zealand x california rabbits of 45 days of age, fed with diets that contained 30 % of leucaena (leucaena leucocephala), trichanthera (trichanthera gigantea), mulberry (morus alba), peanut forage (arachis pintoi) and sweet potato (ipomoea batatas) foliage were used. rabbits were housed individually in cages of 20 x 30 cm, and distributed according to a completely randomized design with six treatments and 12 repetitions. the values obtained for dry matter (57.62 vs. 57.84 %), organic matter (59.97 vs. 60.21 %), energy (58.85 vs. 59.05 %), raw protein (71.03 vs. 71.15 %), neutral detergent fiber (35.40 vs. 35.82 %), acid detergent fiber (17.95 vs. 18.69 %) and hemicellulose digestibility (52.11 vs. 52.56 %) did not show statistical differences (p>0.10) between direct and indirect methods, respectively. due to its simplicity and low cost, the acid-insoluble ash method constitutes a practical, reliable and applicable procedure for nutritional valuation of tropical forages for rabbits.