Dehydrated cashew apple meal in the feeding of growing rabbits

Two trials were conducted aiming to determine the chemical composition, the digestibility of nutrients and energy from dehydrated cashew apple meal, as well as to evaluate the effects generated by including increasing levels (0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50%) of this ingredient in growing rabbit feed, on performance, carcass characteristics and economic evaluation. In the digestibility trial, were used 24 rabbits with 55 days of age, distributed in a completely randomized design with two treatments and twelve repetitions, being one reference feed and the other test feed, composed by 70% of the reference feed and 30% DCAM. The coefficients of the dry matter digestibility, crude protein and gross energy of the DCAM were, respectively, 67.79; 30.03 and 48.61%. The digestible dry matter, digestible protein and digestible energy, based on dry matter, were, respectively, 59.55%; 4.76% and 2,119.66 kcal/kg. In the second trial, 120 mixed breed rabbits were used, with an average of 45 days of age and weight 1143 ± 153g. The animals were distributed in a completely randomized design, with six treatments and ten repetitions with two rabbits of the same sex per cage. It was observed that the inclusion of DCAM did not affect (P > 0.05) the feed intake, but reduced (P < 0.05) the feed conversion efficiency, as well as a linear reduction in carcass yield. A quadratic effect on daily weight gain and the ratio meat/bone was observed, with better inclusion level estimated at 25.31 and 24.65%, respectively. The inclusion of DCAM linearly improved economic viability to the level of 50%, however not to harm the weight gain and the ratio meat/bone, it is recommended to include up to 25%.