Effect of substituting groundnut cake for different levels of rice bran on growth and wool production of German Angora rabbits

[EN] An experiment was conducted on 72 German Angora rabbits (42 youngs and 30 adults) divided into three groups to assess the effect of three experimental diets (T1, T2 and T3) with different levels of groundnut cake replaced by rice bran on their growth performance, wool yield, quality, and digestibility of nutrients. The inclusion rate of groundnut cake was decreased from 20 to 15 to 10% and that of rice bran increased from 13 to 18 to 23% in T1, T2 and T3, respectively. The same diets presented 16.1, 15.1 and 14.0% DM of crude protein and 11.3, 11.1 and 10.9 MJ/kg DM of digestible energy, respectively. All animals were kept under similar housing and management conditions and the experiment was continued for a period of 225 days (3 shearings). No significant effects of the experimental diets on body weight gain, wool yield and wool attributes were observed in young and adult rabbits. However, the wool yield at the 2nd shearing was higher in the T1 group (P