Effect of varying the energy density on growth performance, meat quality, caecum fermentation and microbiota of growing Rex rabbits
S. J. Wu A , L. Liu A , Y. L. Zhu A , C. Y. Wang A and F. C. Li A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A College of Animal Science and Technology, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018, China.
B Corresponding author. Email: chlf@sdau.edu.cn
Animal Production Science 57(1) 90-95 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN14933
Submitted: 8 November 2014 Accepted: 31 August 2015 Published: 22 January 2016
Abstract
An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of varying the digestible energy (DE) density on growth performance, meat quality, caecum fermentation and microbiota in 3–5-month-old Rex rabbits. One-hundred and eighty 3-month-old Rex rabbits were allocated in individual cages to five treatments with diets having DE levels (MJ/kg as-fed basis) of 9.46, 9.97, 10.46, 10.94 and 11.43, respectively. The results showed as follows: with increasing DE concentration the average daily gain, muscle pH value of 45 min post-mortem, caecal pH value and NH3-N concentration increased (P < 0.05). Bacterial denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis) of partial 16S rRNA genes profiles were clearly different among different treatments, which suggests that the population of microorganism in the caecum was influenced by the dietary DE density.
Additional keywords: caecum fermentation, digestible energy, growth performance, meat quality, microbiota, Rex rabbits.
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