Growth performance and blood profiles of weaned New Zealand rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) supplemented with Moringa oleifera leaf meal

This study was conducted to assess the inclusion of varying levels of Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM) on nutrients digestibility, feed intake, growth rate and serum metabolites of New Zealand white weaned rabbits (NZWR). Sixty-four (64) male NZWR (600 +/- 8.58 g body weight, 28 days old) were raised on four isonitrogenous and isoenergetic diets formulated by adding MOLM at 0% (MOLM0), 5% (MOLM5), 10% (MOLM10) and 15% (MOLM15) in a factorial arrangement. There was a significant quadratic trend for fibre digestibility (y = 21.5 (+/- 0.04) - 0.58 (+/- 0.01) x + 0.03 (+/- 0.0008) x(2); R-2 = 0.99), and fat digestibility linearly increased (y = 3.9 (+/- 0.34) - 0.07 (+/- 0.11) x) with MOLM levels. The analysis of repeated measures showed a significant interaction effect of diet x week on weekly feed intake and growth performance. Feed intake demonstrated a linear trend, whilst weight gain and feed conversion ratio showed both linear and quadratic trend; however, the protein efficiency ratio exhibited a quadratic tendency. There were no significant linear and quadratic dependencies for serum biochemical components with the exception of aspartate aminotransferase and albumen. Therefore, it can be concluded that MOLM can be incorporated (up to 15%) in rabbit diets without any adverse effect on growth performance parameters.