Rice gluten meal as a substitute for soybean meal in the diets for growing rabbits

ABSTRACT

The impacts of different dietary levels of rice gluten meal (RGM) on growth performance, digestibility, carcass characteristics, and blood traits of growing New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits were studied. One hundred and twenty, 6 weeks old weaned male rabbits (body weight; 682 [g] ± 23) were randomly allotted into four groups. The control diet contained 160 [g/kg] soybean meal (SBM), while the other three diets were obtained by replacing 40, 80, and 120 [g/kg] SBM with RGM (RGM40, RGM80, and RGM120, respectively). The results showed that RGM contained higher levels of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), ash, and gross energy than SBM. RGM contained a high level of arginine followed by leucine and valine as essential amino acids and high levels of glutamic, aspartic acid, and alanine as non-essential amino acids. The obtained results showed that the final body weight of rabbits fed diets containing 40, 80, and 120 [g/kg] RGM was higher than those fed the control diet. The daily weight gain of rabbits fed RGM diets increased (p < 0.05) by 10.50%, 6.50%, and 10.00%, respectively, compared to the control group. Rabbits fed RGM80 showed the highest (p < 0.05) digestibility of DM, organic matter (OM), EE, neutral detergent fibre (NDF), and acid detergent fibre (ADF) compared to the other tested levels. Rabbits fed RGM120 had the highest (p < 0.05) digestible energy (DE) and digestible crude protein (DCP) values. RGM inclusion levels of 40 and 80 [g/kg] increased (p < 0.05) plasma total protein and albumin compared to the control group. Rabbits fed a diet containing RGM40 had the highest (p < 0.05) globulin level. The highest (p < 0.05) plasma urea concentration level was measured in the rabbit group fed the RGM120 diet. Conclusively, RGM could be a valuable ingredient for growing rabbits, as at all the tested levels improved growth performance, digestibility, and nutritional values.

KEYWORDS:

• Rice gluten meal
• Oryctolagus cuniculus
• growth performance
• carcass traits
• nutrient digestibility
• blood profiles

Disclosure statement

We declare that all the listed authors meet and agree on the following criteria:

1. This study is original and has not been published elsewhere.

2. All data involved in the manuscript are checked and reliable.

3. All the authors have read and accepted the manuscript as it is submitted for publication.

4. All the authors approve the version to be published.

Author contributions

Conceptualization, F.H. and M.M.; methodology, S.E. and D.O.; software, R.I.; validation, Y.A.A., B.B., F.H. and M.M.; formal analysis, A.A. and K.M.; investigation, R.A.A., Y.A.A., D.O. and K.M.; resources, S.E. and D.O.; data curation, W.L. and F.H.; writing – original draft preparation, F.H., R.S., A.A., and B.B.; writing – review and editing, R.A.A., Y.A.A., K.M., W.L., and B.B.; visualisation, M.M. and D.O.; supervision, S.E.; project administration, F.H. and K.M.; funding acquisition, R.A.A., Y.A.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Institutional review board statement

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of Animal Production Research Institute, Giza, Egypt (APRI/132429/191214).

Additional information

Funding

This research work was funded by Researchers Supporting Project number [RSPD2024R581], King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.