Effect of Open Fire Roasting on Reducing Tannin Content in Soybean (Glycine max), Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) and Pigeon Pea (Cajanus cajan)

The effect of roasting in reducing anti-nutritional factors (ANF), in legume grains (pigeon pea (PP), cowpea (CoP) and soybean (SB) as source of proteins for growing rabbits was evaluated. Flemish Giant (FG), California Black (CB) and New Zealand White (NZW)) were fed soybean (Glycine max), pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) as protein sources in the ration. Eighteen rabbits weaned at six weeks of age were used for each breed (a total of 54 rabbits) out of which six of them were assigned to Ration 1 (containing 31.6 % soybean), six rabbits to ration 2 (containing 72 % cowpea) and the last six to Ration 3 (containing 70.18 % pigeon pea). The rabbits were randomly assigned to fifty four cages in a 3 x 3 factorial experiment. The three legume grains were roasted to a uniform light brown colour using ordinary open fire, before rations were compounded. Raw Legume Grains (RaLG), Roasted Legume Grains(RoLG) and the three Rations (1, 2 and 3) were analyzed for tannin content (TC). TC was significantly (p<0.05) higher in raw and roasted CoP and Ration 3. Rabbits fed SB based ration had significantly (p<0.05) higher growth rate than rabbits fed either CoP or PP based rations. Mortality was higher for rabbits fed on CoP based ration. Rabbits offered PP based ration demonstrated a significantly