Effect of type of grinding of barley and dehydrated alfalfa on performance, digestion, and crude mucin ileal concentration in growing rabbits

The effects of type of grinding of barley and dehydrated alfalfa (DA) were tested in rabbits weaned at 35 d of age with an average BW of 846 ± 93 g. Four nonmedicated diets were arranged in a 2 × 2 factorial structure, with type of grinding (coarse grinding with a 4.5-mm screen or fine grinding with a 1.5-mm screen) of barley (TGB) and DA (TGDA) as the main factors. A total of 1,056 mixed-sex rabbits (264 per diet) were fattened until d 63. Most of these rabbits (216 per diet) were housed in pairs and were used only to record mortality rate. Mortality was also recorded for the remaining 192 rabbits, which were housed individually and used to determine growth performance. From this group, 100 rabbits were used to determine digestive traits. Apart from those rabbits, a different group of 88 rabbits (44 housed individually and the remaining 44 housed in pairs) was used in the digestibility trial. All rabbits in this group were used to determine ileal digestibility (13 pools of ileal digesta per diet) and ileal mucin concentration (6 pools of ileal digesta per diet), whereas only the 44 individually housed rabbits were used to assess the fecal digestibility coefficients (11 rabbits per diet). Last, a jejunal sample was excised from 32 of the 44 individually housed rabbits to determine mucosal histology. Treatments did not affect ADG, ADFI, or G:F in the entire fattening period, but in the 49- to 63-d period, the diet containing both finely ground barley and DA reduced ADFI (P=0.08) compared with the other treatments (130 vs. 137 g). Moreover, this diet increased total digestive tract (4.76%, P=0.08) and cecal content (11.3%, P=0.08) weights compared with the other 3 treatments. Pylorus (P=0.09) and mixed digesta (P=0.06) pH, respectively, were reduced from 1.53 and 1.59 to 1.37 and 1.44 when both barley and DA were finely instead of coarsely ground. Grinding both barley and DA coarsely reduced the ileal digestibility of starch (0.899 vs. 0.936, P=0.06), increased (P < 0.01) its ileal flow and content in the feces to 1.66 g/d and 7.42 g/kg of DM, respectively, and led to decreased fecal digestibility (0.932 vs. 0.951, P < 0.01) compared with fine grinding. Coarse DA shortened villi (612 vs. 704 μm, P=0.02), increased crypt depth (121 vs. 92.1 μm, P=0.01), and reduced the villus:crypt ratio (5.08 vs. 7.66, P < 0.01) compared with finely ground DA. Furthermore, the greatest ileal crude mucin (148 vs. 107 g/kg of DMI, P=0.02) and sialic acid (71.7 vs. 61.7 mg/kg o