Digestible energy of unpeeled cassava root meal and its effect on growth performance and carcass traits in rabbits

[EN] Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the use of cassava root meal (891 g dry matter [DM]/kg, 639 g starch/kg, 74.1 g neutral detergent fibre [NDF]/kg, and 26.6 g crude protein [CP]/kg) in diets for growing rabbits. In the first experiment, a basal diet (419 g NDF/kg and 181 g CP/kg) and a test diet, in which cassava replaced 25% of the DM of the reference diet, were used. Twenty 50-d-old New Zealand White rabbits weighing 1474±10 g were randomly assigned to the 2 treatments, and digestibility of DM and gross energy (GE) were determined. The inclusion of cassava root meal in the diet increased DM digestibility (67.0±0.80 vs. 58.0±1.12%, P<0.01) and digestible energy (DE) content (11.86±0.16 vs. 10.45±0.22 MJ/kg, P