Nutritional impact of nano-selenium, garlic oil, and their combination on growth and reproductive performance of male Californian rabbits

• DOI: 10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2019.01.016
• Publication Date: 2019-01-30T08:27:25Z
• Authors: A.A.A. Abdel-Wareth; A.E. Ahmed; H.A. Hassan; M.S. Abd El-Sadek; A.A. Ghazalah; J. Lohakare
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 2. Zero hunger; 03 medical and health sciences; 3. Good health

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the effects of nano-selenium (nano-Se), garlic oil, and their combination on nutrients digestibility, semen quality, serum testosterone and metabolites of male Californian rabbits. A total of 80 rabbits (120 days of age) were randomly distributed into four treatment groups of 20 rabbits each. Treatment groups were fed a control diet, a control diet supplemented with nano-Se (400 μg/kg), control diet supplemented with garlic oil (700 mg/kg), or control diet supplemented with combination of nano-Se (400 μg/kg) and garlic oil (700 mg/kg). The feeding trial lasted for 60 days. The results showed that improvements were observed in body weight (BW) gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR) in nano-Se treated group than non-supplemented group, and an interaction effect was observed on final BW of rabbits. The digestibility of all measured nutrients were significantly higher (P