ChileanJAR

A 16 week feeding trial was carried out to investigate the effect of dietary Neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss.) leaf meal (NLM) on body weight gain, linear body measurements and blood chemistry of pre-puberal buck rabbits. Four treatment diets were formulated to contain the NLM at inclusion levels of 0 (control), 5, 10 and 15%. Thirty six crossbred New Zealand white × Chinchilla pre-puberal buck rabbits aged 5 to 6 mo were divided into four groups of nine rabbits and each group was further replicated into three of three rabbits each. The rabbits were randomly assigned to the four dietary treatments. Lymphocyte count of rabbits fed control diet (8.32 × 10⁹ mm^-3) was significantly higher than the group fed 15% NLM (4.60 × 10⁹ mm^-3). The mean cell hemoglobin (MCH) and mean cell volume (MCV) of the control bucks were significantly (p < 0.05) higher than those fed 5% NLM. The neutrophils count of bucks fed 15% NLM (0.95 × 10⁹ mm^-3) was significantly (p < 0.05) different from the groups fed 0% NLM (2.08 × 10⁹ mm^-3), 5% NLM (2.69 × 10⁹ mm^-3) and 10% (2.13 × 10⁹ mm^-3). All the other parameters measured were similar (p > 0.05) among the treatment groups. The results suggest that buck rabbits could tolerate up to 15% dietary inclusion of NLM without deleterious effects on body weight gain, linear body measurements and some hematological parameters.