Effects of Dietary Electrolyte Balance on Growth Performance, Nitrogen Metabolism and Some Blood Biochemical Parameters of Growing Rabbits

Abstract

The effects of different dietary electrolyte balance (DEB) on growth performance, nitrogen (N) metabolism and some blood biochemical parameters were investigated in 2 to 3 months old growing rabbits. A total of 150 growing rabbits of 2 months age were randomly divided into five groups according to average body weight, with 30 rabbits in each group. The DEB levels of the five experimental diets were −154, −3.16, +201, +347, and +500 meq/kg of dry matter (DM), respectively. There was a 7-d adaptation period and a 23-d experimental period. The results showed that the DEB levels had a quadratic affect on the average daily feed intake (ADFI) (p<0.001). The greatest ADFI was achieved when the DEB level was +201 meq/kg DM. Fecal N (FN) content linearly decreased (0.047), while digestible N (DN), retained N (RN), efficiency of intake N converted into digestible N (DN/IN) and the efficiency of intake N converted into retained N (RN/IN) linearly increased with the DEB increase (0.020, 0.004, 0.021, and 0.049, respectively). Serum phosphorus (P) ion content linearly increased with the DEB increase (p = 0.036). The DEB had a quadratic relationship with serum anion gap (AG) (p = 0.002) and serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) content (p = 0.016). The DEB levels quadratically affected base excess (BE) in the plasma (p<0.001). In conclusion, the DEB unaffected growth performance but affected feed intake, N metabolism and some blood biochemical parameters of growing rabbits.

Effect of Different Dietary Electrolyte Balance Levels on Physiological Responses and Metabolic Rate of Rams Exposed to Heat Stress Conditions

“…Escobosa et al (1984) found that dietary sodium bicarbonate during heat stress increased blood glucose level of cows and they reported that this increase may be due to higher feed intake in high sodium bicarbonate group. Li et al (2013) found that increasing DEB level in rabbits' diet (up to 500 meq) increased feed intake, N metabolism and blood total protein. It has been reported that blood proteins play a basic role of intracellular buffers within the body tissues to provide a reserve buffering capacity (Cunningham, 2002) and this is indicated that increasing blood total protein concentrations by DEB supplementation had a beneficial effect on acid-base balance.…”

Sodium butyrate improved intestinal barrier in rabbits

“…At the beginning of the experiment, the initial body weight, daily feed intake and the number of rabbits with diarrhoea were recorded. At the end of the experiment, the terminal weight was recorded, and the average daily feed intake (ADFI), average daily gain (ADG) and feed gain ratio (F/G) were calculated (Du et al 2013;Li et al 2013). The numbers of rabbits with diarrhoea or that died were recorded daily throughout the study.…”