Growth performance, serum biochemistry, and carcass traits of growing rabbits fed supplemental levels of Spirulina platensis

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of fodder supplemented with various levels of Spirulina platensis (SP) on the growth, serum biochemical parameters, antioxidant, and carcass performance of New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits. 45 healthy growing rabbits at 35 d of age were selected for this study. Rabbits were divided into 3 treatments containing 5 replicates per group, and each replicate had 3 rabbits. The 1st treatment was control. The 2nd to 3rd treatment were received a basal diet with supplements with SP at doses of 1.5 and 2.5 gm SP/kg diet, respectively. The whole experiment lasted 55 days, Results showed that that feed intake and growth rates increased (P≤0.05) by using 1.5 and 2.5 gm SP/kg diet, with significantly improved FCR. There were no changes on albumin, globulin, and urea-N, creatinine, among groups. While Adding SP led to significantly (P≤0.05) increase TP, TAC, T3, and T4 compared with control. However, total cholesterol, ALT and AST were significantly decreased (P≤0.05) with SP compared with control group. Additionally, significant increases were observed for all carcass performances, including the weight of hot carcass, carcass yield, organs weights, and carcass parts. The presented results concluded that SP supplementation improves feed intake, blood biochemistry, antioxidant status, growth performance, and carcass performance in rabbits under New Valley conditions, Egypt.