Study of the effect of black seed and vitamin C on the performance of the growing rabbits

الملخص

Thirty-six growing V-line rabbits of both sexes, 5 weeks old, with initial weights of 776.66 ±22.11 g were used for the study. The rabbits were randomly allocated to four treatments groups of 9 rabbits each. Group one fed Basel diet free of feed additives and served as a control group. Group 2 and 3 fed Basel diet with 200 and 400 mg Black seed crushed/ kg diet, respectively. Group 4 received control diet, but drinking water supplemented with 200 mg vitamin C /L. Results showed that at 13 weeks of age the supplementation of 200 mg vitamin C 200 and 400 mg Black seed/kg diet brought a significant (P ≤ 0.01) improvements in final body weight by the value of 5.4, 7.7 and 9.3 %, weight gain by 8.6, 12.3 and 14.7 %, feed conversion ratio by 10.9, 15.1 and 17.9 %, performance index by 16.6, 25.0 and 31.3 % and significantly (P ≤ 0.01) decreased feed intake by 1.3, 2.7 and 4.3 %, respectively. In conclusion the results showed that addition of black seed or vitamin C in rabbit diets had improved the performance of the growing rabbits