Effect of Dietary Addition of Two Selenium Sources on Productive Efficiency and Selenium Content in Tissues in Growing Rabbits

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

1 Poultry Production Dept., Faculty of Agriculture, Dameita University

2 Animal Production Research Institute, Sakha, Agricultural Research Center

Abstract

This study was conducted to comparison between different forms of selenium and its effects on production performance in growing rabbits. Seventy-five mixed sex growing APRI line rabbits aged five weeks was assigned randomly into five experimental groups. The first (1st) group act as untreated (control) that fed ad libitum a commercial pelleted diet, whereas the opposite groups (2nd; 3rd, 4th and 5th) were fed the identical diet, however addition with 0.3 mg Se-yeast/kg diet as organic Se form (OSe), 0.3 mg OSe/kg diet plus 200 mg Vit.E/kg, 0.3 mg Se/kg diet as inorganic Se form (ISe) and 0.3 mg ISe/kg diet as Na2SeO3 plus 200 mg Vit.E/kg, respectively. The study was lasted for eight weeks throughout the fattening period, from 5 weeks to 13 weeks. The result revealed that final body weight (FBW), daily weight gain (DWG) and performance index (PI) were significantly (P≤0.01) higher for growing APRI rabbits in treated groups than those of the control group. There were insignificantly differences in the percentage weights of liver, kidney, heart and giblets of the rabbit groups received OSe as compared to ISe. The concentration of selenium (µgL-1) in the hindleg was significantly higher in the groups added with OSe and OSe + Vit. E than other groups. It can be concluded that Se addition in either organic or inorganic form of growing rabbit in diets exerted some benefits on growth efficiency, digestibility of nutrients, carcass traits, and the residual Se in meat in growing rabbits.

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