Amino acid and mineral composition of meat from rabbits (<i>Oryctolagus cunniculus</i>) fed diets containing graded levels of processed tallow (<i>Detarium microcarpum</i>) seed meal

Abstract

Eighty one weaned composite breeds of rabbits (males and females) were randomly allotted to nine treatment groups with nine rabbits per treatment. Each treatment had three replicates with three rabbits per replicate. Processed tallow meal was included in the diets as a source of protein which was set at 16 % CP. The control diet had 100 % palm kernel cake (PKC) and 0 % tallow seed meal (TSM). Diets 1 4 contained cooked tallow seed meal (CTSM) included at 75 % PKC: 25 % CTSM, 50 % PKC: 50% CTSM, 25% PKC:75 % CTSM and 0 % PKC: 100 % CTSM, respectively while groups 5 – 8 had fermented tallow seed meal diets (FTSM) and included at the same levels as in the cooked diets. Fifty four rabbits were randomly selected for slaughtering from the nine groups with six rabbits (male and females) per group. Amino acid and mineral composition of rabbit's meat were determined. The amino acid content of the meat of rabbits were significantly (P<0.05) affected by both the processing methods and levels of inclusion except for alanine which was not affected by processing methods, while the mineral contents revealed that potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, copper, manganese, iron, and zinc were significantly (P<0.05) affected by the processing method and the inclusion levels of the diets. It was concluded that eat from rabbits fed processed tallow seed meal based diets had low cholesterol level irrespective of processing method and it is of high biological value due to its amino acid composition.

Key words: Amino acid, mineral, rabbit meat, tallow seed, processing