Performance of weaned male rabbits fed varied levels of dietary fumonisin B1

In a six-week feeding trial, a total of 48 crossbred weaned male rabbits of 7 weeks old were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments, with 12 replicates per treatment to determine growth indices and nutrient digestibility of rabbits fed fumonisin-contaminated diets. Maize grains contaminated with fumonisin B1 were incorporated into rabbit diets excluding the control diet (treatment 1, 0.13mgKg-1), at varied inclusion levels of 5.0mgKg-1, 7.5mgKg-1 and 10.0mgKg-1 fumonisin B1, constituting treatments 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The results showed that the average final live weight of rabbits fed treatments 3 and 4 were significantly (P<0.05) lower than those fed treatment 2 and the control. The average daily dry matter intake of the animals fed the dietary treatments was not significantly different. The mean daily weight gain of rabbits fed 5.0mgkg-1, 7.5mgKg-1 and 10.0mgKg-1 however declined significantly (P<0.05) by 91.23, 83.92 and 81.88% respectively, relative to the mean daily weight gain of 12.31g/rabbit/day of animals fed the control diet. The result further showed that digestibility of the nutrients of the experimental diets except crude protein, were similar among the treatments. The crude protein digestibility of rabbits fed 7.5mgKg-1and 10.0mgKg-1 were identical but significantly (P<0.05) lower than those fed 5.0mgKg-1 and the control diet. This suggests inhibition of nitrogen utilization and depressed performance in the animals fed diets containing ≥ 5.0mg fumonisin B1/Kg. Diets containing up to 7.5 mg fumonisin B1/Kg will depress live weight and daily weight gain as a result of reduced protein utilization in weaned rabbits.