Nutrient Digestibility of Mulberry Foliage (Morus alba) in Fattening Rabbits

An experiment was carried out with 36 New Zealand x California growing rabbits, 975 225 g weight live, to determinate the nutrient apparent digestibility in mulberry foliage (Morus alba), the substitution of the test ingredient in a basal diet and direct methods were used. The animals were distributed agreement with an experimental design completely randomized in 12 repetitions. The treatments were: T1 = basal diet, T2 = inclusion of 30% of mulberry foliage in the diet, and T3 = mulberry foliage. The experimental period lasted 11 days (4 of collection). The dry matter digestibility (64.85 +/- 10.79, 62.55 +/- 13.51 and 61.65 +/- 10.83%), organic matter digestibility (65.75 +/- 10.69, 64.19 +/- 13.14 and 63.94 +/- 10.41 %), energy digestibility (64.61 +/- 11.05, 62.26 +/- 14.67 and 55.68 +/- 12.82%), neutral detergent fiber digestibility (54.80 +/- 14.09, 49.92 +/- 17.15 and 58.96 +/- 11.05%) and acid detergent fiber digestibility (47.40 +/- 8.71, 42.74 +/- 8.70 and 48.68 +/- 12.71%) for T1, T2 and T3, respectively, didn't present differences (P > 0.05) among diets. The raw fiber digestibility was bigger (P < 0.05) in mulberry diet (43.32 +/- 2.02, 41.99 +/- 15.78 and 67.90 +/- 8.14% for T1. T2 and T3) and the apparent crude protein digestibility was bigger (P < 0.05) in the basal diet (81.53 +/- 5.82, 70.20 +/- 11.13 and 65.07b +/- 9.47% for T1, T2 and T3). The estimate digestible energy (DE) content for mulberry foliage was 2328.60 +/- 501.93 kcal/kg and the digestible protein (DP) was 136.7 +/- 21.4 g/kg dry matter. The values determined for DE and DP were similar between methods. The mulberry foliage presented high nutritional value and can to constitute an excellent dietary ingredient for rabbits.