Impacts of supplementing growing rabbit diets with whey powder and citric acid on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, meat and bone analysis, and gut health

AMB Express

Table 4 The effect of graded levels of whey with addition of citric acid on digestion coefficient (DC) of nutrients (%) on dry matter basis

DC	T1	T2	T3	T4	T5	P-value
DM	73.70 ± 0.21^c	75.34 ± 0.33^bc	77.06 ± 1.67^b	80.72 ± 0.66^a	82.31 ± 0.86^a	≤ 0.001
CP	58.49 ± 0.50^b	58.57 ± 0.84^b	62.36 ± 3.11^b	71.40 ± 1.28^a	76.18 ± 0.63^a	≤ 0.001
CF	22.78 ± 2.47^c	27.59 ± 1.06^bc	31.47 ± 1.88^b	42.40 ± 2.40^a	45.51 ± 1.76^a	≤ 0.001
Ash	51.07 ± 1.02^c	58.78 ± 0.96^b	59.72 ± 1.91^b	70.01 ± 1.53^a	70.95 ± 2.01^a	≤ 0.001
EE	52.11 ± 1.92^b	55.00 ± 1.83^b	60.22 ± 4.57^ab	66.97 ± 2.69^a	68.45 ± 1.39^a	0.006
NFE	49.77 ± 2.71	53.33 ± 0.18	54.27 ± 5.59	56.94 ± 1.32	62.37 ± 2.32	0.118

T1, basal diet with no additives; T2, basal diet supplemented with citric acid (10 g/kg) and no whey; T3, T2 + whey powder (7.5 g/kg); T4, T2 + whey powder(15 g/kg); T5, T2 + whey powder (22.5 g/kg)
DM dry matter; CP crude protein; CF crude fiber; Ash ash; EE ether extract; NFE nitrogen free extract
^a–cMeans within the same row carrying different superscripts are significantly different at (P ≤ 0.05)