Blood Analysis of Growing Rabbits Fed Cooked Bambara Nut Meal as Replacement for Groundnut Cake in a Semi-Arid Zone of Nigeria

A ten-weeks feeding trial was conducted to determine the effect of replacing groundnut cake (GNC) with cooked Bambara nut meal (CBNM) on the Heamatology and serum biochemistry of Growing Rabbits. Thirty mixed breed (New Zealand White X Dutch) of rabbits six to seven weeks of age with initial body weight of 604.50 g were caged individually and allotted to 5 dietary treatments. Each treatment had six (6) replications. The diets and clean drinking water were given ad libitum throughout the period of experiment. In diets 1(control), 2, 3, 4 and 5 CBNM replaced GNC at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, respectively. All data collected in the course of the experiment were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the completely randomized design (Steel and Torrie,1980) and where applicable Duncan's multiple range test, was used for meanseparation. The haematological parameters indicated that there were no significant (P>0.05) differences among treatment groups for PCV, RBC, WBC, MCV, MCH and MCHC, while Hb differ significantly (P<0.05) with animals on treatment 5 (100%CBNM) having highest value of 12.73 g/dl while animals on the control (0%CBNM) had 11.10 g/dl as the lowest. There were no significant differences (P>0.05) among treatment groups in total protein, albumin, creatinine, urea, cholesterol and glucose. Globulin range of 4.67-11.00 g/l was obtained with significant difference (P<0.05) among treatment groups with T3 (50%CBNM) having higher value of 11.00 g/l and T4 (75%CBNM) having 4.67 g/l the lowest. Serum electrolytes; Phosphorus (P), Calcium (Ca) and bicarbonate showed no significant (P>0.05) difference among treatment groups.