Digestible energy of unpeeled cassava root meal and its effect on growth performance and carcass traits in rabbits

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the use of cassava root meal (891 g dry matter [DM]/kg, 639 g starch/kg, 74.1 g neutral detergent fibre [NDF]/kg, and 26.6 g crude protein [CP]/kg) in diets for growing rabbits. In the first experiment, a basal diet (419 g NDF/kg and 181 g CP/kg) and a test diet, in which cassava replaced 25% of the DM of the reference diet, were used. Twenty 50-d-old New Zealand White rabbits weighing 1474±10 g were randomly assigned to the 2 treatments, and digestibility of DM and gross energy (GE) were determined. The inclusion of cassava root meal in the diet increased DM digestibility (67.0±0.80 vs. 58.0±1.12%, P