Abortifacient potentials of rabbits fed fermented Delonix regia seed meal-based diets in Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria

Abstract

This study determined the reproductive response of rabbits fed fermented Delonix regia seed meal – based diets. Twenty (20) cross bred mature rabbits of both sexes with an average initial weight of 1300g ± 0.04 were used in a feeding trial that lasted for 12 weeks. The rabbits were divided into five groups of four rabbits each. Each rabbit was housed separately. Five experimental diets were formulated comprising 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 % inclusion levels of fermented Delonix regia seed meal designated as T₁ (control), T₂, T₃, T₄ and T₅, respectively. The rabbits were randomly assigned to the diets after weight and sex equalization in a completely randomized design (CRD). The reproductive characteristics of the rabbits were determined and data subjected to one – way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results of the reproductive characteristics for the female rabbits (does) showed non-significant differences (p>0.05) between dietary treatments for conception rate (100 % across the treatments), and average weaning weight (115.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 and 0.00g) for T₁, T₂, T₃, T₄ and T₅, respectively.  The female reproductive tract morphometry showed that weight (3.00, 2.00, 5.00, 4.50 and 10.00g) of the whole reproductive tract was not significantly (p>0.05) affected by dietary treatments. The reproductive tract morphometry of the male rabbits (bucks) showed that the testicular weight (7.00, 6.00, 9.00, 7.00 and 4.00g) and length (7.50, 8.00, 9.00, 7,00 and 4.00g) were not significantly (p>0.05) affected by dietary treatments. Treatment 4 showed a better performance in whole reproductive tract length for the does and total sperm in tract sperm reserve. The study concluded that the inclusion of fermented Delonix regia seed meal up to 20% level was detrimental to the reproductive performance of female rabbit in particular.