Animals (Jun 2023)

Effects of Dietary Bioactive Lipid Compounds of <i>Acacia nilotica</i> Bark on Productive Performance, Antioxidant Status, and Antimicrobial Activities of Growing Rabbits under Hot Climatic Conditions

  • Ahmed A. A. Abdel-Wareth,
  • Hazem G. M. El-Sayed,
  • Hamdy A. Hassan,
  • Ghadir A. El-Chaghaby,
  • Abdel-Wahab A. Abdel-Warith,
  • Elsayed M. Younis,
  • Shimaa A. Amer,
  • Sayed Rashad,
  • Jayant Lohakare

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13121933
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 12
p. 1933

Abstract

Read online

This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of dietary Acacia nilotica bark bioactive lipid compounds (ANBBLCs) as novel feed additives on the growth performance, carcass criteria, antioxidants, and antimicrobial activities of growing male rabbits. A total of 100 California male weanling rabbits aged 35 days were divided into four nutritional treatments, each of which contained ANBBLCs at concentrations of 0 (control group), 50, 100, and 150 mg/kg diet (n = 25 per treatment, each replication consisting of one animal). The average body weight of the animals was 613 ± 14 g. The experiments lasted for 56 days. Dietary ANBBLC levels linearly improved (p p Lactobacillus increased and Staphylococcus decreased (p < 0.05) in comparison to the control group when ANBBLC levels were added to the diets of rabbits. Rabbit diets supplemented with ANBBLCs increased dressing percentages and decreased abdominal fat. This study shows that ANBBLCs can be used as a feed additive to enhance the growth performance, carcass criteria, antioxidant, and antibacterial properties of growing rabbits.

Keywords