Abstract

Background:
Leaf meals are a good potential alternative feed source in livestock production. However, this is limited by the presence of antinutritional components that must be regulated before inclusion in animal diets.

Aim:
This study evaluated the gut morphometric and duodenal histological morphometric parameters of local rabbits fed a diet that included various leaf meals.

Methods:
The local rabbits of age between 6 to 7 weeks, and average weight of 900 grams, were placed on five diets [D1, D2, D3, D4, and D5] containing 0% NLM (no leaf meal), 6% TDLM (Tithonia diversifolia leaf meal), 6% PBLM (Parkia biglobosa leaf meal), 6% SNLM (Synedrella nodiflora leaf meal), and 6% LMM (2% TD + 2% PB + 2% SN leaf meal mixture), arranged in a completely randomized design with five treatments, three replicates, and nine animals per replicate for 56 days. Data collected on the gut morphometry were subjected to a one-way analysis of variance.

Results:
The results indicated that the length of the small intestine significantly (p

Key words: Dietary; Duodenal; Gut; Leaf meal; Mucosal; Necrosis; Histology.