Impact of Tropical Velvet Bean (Mucuna Utilis) Leaf Meal on Performance, Organ Weight and Haematological Indices of Young Rabbits

A six (6) weeks feeding trial was carried out to investigate the effect of Velvet Bean (Mucuna utilis) Leaf Meal (MLM) on feed intake, body weight gain, organ weight and some haematological parameters of growing rabbits. Graded levels of ground MLM were incorporated into five iso-nitrogenous dietary treatments at 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%, and designated as T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 respectively. Twenty (20) crossbred Chinchilla and New Zealand white growing rabbits aged 6 - 8 weeks old were randomly allocated in equal number to the five (5) experimental dietary treatments and replicated four times with a rabbit per replicate in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Standard management procedures were observed and the nutritive value of MLM was assessed. The result showed that there was significant (P < 0.05) difference in average feed intake with the highest value occurring at 10% MLM level of inclusion (T3) and lowest at 20%. Although there was no significant (P > 0.05) difference in the average weight gain among the treatment groups, numerical comparison showed that the 5% inclusion level of MLM presented a higher value than the other treatments. The Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) was lowest at 5% level of MLM inclusion and highest at 20%. There was no significant (P > 0.05) difference in the weight of vital internal organs of the rabbits among the treatment groups, and the organ weights were generally similar in numerical comparison to those in the control group. Results, with respect to the weight of liver and kidney of the rabbits fed dietary MLM suggested that the antinutritional factors in the test diets were within tolerable levels that could not exert any significant abnormalities in the internal organs. Haematological parameters such as the White Blood Cell (WBC), number of platelets, Red Blood Cell (RBC), Mean Cell Haemoglobin (MCH), Haemoglobin (Hb) and Packed Cell Volume (PCV) were also not significantly (P > 0.05) different among the rabbits across the treatment groups. The values for PCV suggested that the various levels of MLM used in this study had no toxic effect on the health status of the experimental animals. Up to 20% of MLM can thus be included in the diet of growing rabbits without any serious adverse effects on performance, vital internal organs and haematological characteristics.