African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 4 (5), pp. 437-443, May 2005          
ISSN 1684–5315 © 2005 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Reproductive performance of rabbits fed maize-milling waste based diets

F.O. Ajayi¹, O.O. Balogun², S.S. Ovuru¹ and O.O. Mgbere¹

¹Department of Animal Science, Rivers State University of Science & Technology, P.M.B. 5080, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

²Department of Animal Production, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author.  E-mail: folasade_ajayi@yahoo.com.

Accepted February 22, 2005

The influence of maize-milling waste on the reproductive performance of rabbits was assessed.  The treatments comprised of autoclaved and unautoclaved maize-milling waste, groundnut cake/maize meal diets formulated with 0 (I), 25 (II), 50 (III), 75 (IV) and 100% (V) replacement of maize with maize-milling waste.  Each of the diets contains 18% crude protein and was unpelleted. There were two parity periods and the duration was 15 weeks.  In the first parity period, the conception rates were 33.33, 100, 75, 66.66 and 75% for treatments I, II, III, IV and V, respectively, while the second parity conceptions rates were 50, 75 and 50% for treatments II, III and IV, respectively.  No conceptions were observed for treatments I and V.  The first breeding trials had abortion rates of 50 and 25% for treatments II and V, respectively.  Autoclaved maize-milling waste was used for the second breeding trials.  Autoclaving maize milling waste was observed to improve the nutritional value of the diets and neither abortion nor still births were seen for the second parity period. Therefore, simple diet comprising maize-milling waste and groundnut cake can support normal growth and reproduction of rabbits for meat production.

Key words:  Rabbits, maize-milling waste, reproduction.