Growth Responses of Weaner Rabbits to Dietary Ginger (Zinger officinale) and Garlic (Allium sativum)

Abstract

The growth performance responses of weaner rabbits to dietary ginger or combined ginger/garlic were investigated. 18 males New Zealand White rabbits with initial body weights (BW) ranging between 485-500 grams were used in the investigation. The animals were similarly managed during the first week; the period of pre-conditioning of the animals to their new environments. At the end of the pre-conditioning period, the animals were randomly assigned to three experimental diets: diet 1 (T₁) was the negative control diet contained no ginger or garlic, diet 2 (T₂) the first positive diet containing ginger at the rate of 20g/kg of diet while the third diet (T₃) the second positive diet contained ginger and garlic at 10g of ginger + 10g of garlic/kg of diet, respectively. The animals were fed at 5% of their BW for 4 weeks; and thus in the overall the experiment lasted for 5 weeks. The feed intakes of the animals were closely monitored throughout the study period; which enabled the determination of total feed intakes upon which average daily feed intakes (ADFI) were computed. At the end of trial all rabbits in all the treatments were re-weighed to obtain their final BW from where the average daily weight gain (ADG) were computed. From the ADFI and ADG data feed efficiencies (FE) were determined. There were no significant (P > 0.05) differences in the ADFI amongst all dietary treatments. However, the ADG of the positive control diets (T₂ and T₃) were significantly (P < 0.05) superior to the control diet (T₁). Nevertheless, animals on the T₃ diet gained at the best rate as T₃ animals ADG were significantly (P < 0.05) better compared with the T₂ animals. The trend in the ADG was mirrored in the FE data. Therefore, it was concluded that ginger and garlic improved weaner rabbits’ growth performance but the performance was better enhanced with combined dietary ginger and garlic.