Revista de Producción Animal (Jul 2018)

Productive Behavior of Rabbits Fed Spent Mushroom Substrates

  • Osmar Martínez Ramírez ,
  • Rosa C. Bermúdez Savón ,
  • Román Rodríguez Bertot ,
  • Nora García Oduardo

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 30, no. 2
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Thirty male rabbits (Cuban Brown) were studied for 35 days to determine their production indicators. The animal diet included spent mushroom substrate (SMS). The animals were distributed in a completely randomized design with three treatments and five replications. Two treatments were analyzed: control (balanced diet including maize, soy, sugar cane meal, and mulberry leaf meal), and substitution of the mulberry leaves for milled SMS (20 and 10% inclusion). The final live weights (1.54, 1.50, and 1.52 kg), mean daily gains (17.41, 15.98, and 16.70 g/rabbit/day), feed consumption (70.04, 76.94, and 74.50 g/rabbit/day), and feed conversion (4.36, 4.81, and 4.46, respectively) showed no differences (P > 0.05) among the treatments. The substitution of mulberry leaves for SMS did not affect the productive behavior of the animals. These results suggest the inclusion of up to 20% SMS in the diet of fattening rabbits.