Nutrient digestibility and blood profile of rabbit fed aflatoxin contaminated diets containing sweet orange (<i>Citrus sinensis</i>) peel meal

Abstract

The nutrient digestibility and blood profile of mixed breed grower rabbits fed aflatoxin contaminated diets containing sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) peel meal were evaluated in an 8-week feeding trial. Aspergillus flavus (NRRL 1999) was cultured and used for aflatoxin production in inoculated groundnut cake using the solid state fermentation method. Treated groundnut cake was incubated for seven days with incremental incubation temperature from 20-25oC. The groundnut cake was autoclaved, milled and, aflatoxin extracted from 10 g sample of the milled cake with 50 ml chloroform, and its concentration quantified by TLC. Treated groundnut cake was included at 0, 50, 100 and 150 gram in grower rabbit basal diets containing 5% sweet orange peel to produce diets T1, T2, T3 and T4 having 0 ppb, 50 ppb, 100 ppb, 150 ppb levels of aflatoxin, respectively. Twenty four healthy mixed breed grower rabbits of between six to eight (6-8) weeks old used were randomly allocated to these dietary treatments. Significant (p<0.05) decreases occured in the digestibility of nitrogen free extract, ether extract and dry matter for rabbits fed 100ppb aflatoxin contaminated diet whereas, digestibilities of crude protein, and crude fibre were not significantly (p>0.05) affected among the treatments. Packed cell volume and mean corpuscular volume, serum albumin, urea, glucose and cholesterol differed significantly (p<0.05) but, red blood cell and white blood cell counts, haemoglobin, mean corpuscular haemoglobin, total protein and globulin did not (p>0.05) among the treatments. The declining nutrient digestibility, coupled with the deviations of PCV and MCV and, serum albumin, urea, glucose and cholesterol from normal physiological values showed the health risk associated with the feeding aflatoxin contaminated diet. The incorporation of sweet orange peel meal at 5% level in grower rabbit diet cannot mitigate the adverse effect of aflatoxin on nutrient digestibility and health.

Keywords: Rabbit, aflatoxin, orange peel, digestibility, blood profile