Effects of diets with increasing levels of dried tomato pomace on the performances and apparent digestibility of growing rabbits

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of three levels (0, 3 and 6%) of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) pomace (TP), included in isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets, on the performances and in vivo apparent digestibility of growing rabbits. The growing trial, which lasted 50 days, was carried out on 144 crossbred (Hycole x Grimaud) rabbits randomly divided into three groups. Each rabbit was kept in an individual cage. The mean mortality was about 8%, and there was no difference between the groups during the trial. The weight gain, feed consumption and feed efficiency values did not differ significantly for the different dietary treatments, while the final weight was higher in the rabbits fed the diet with 3% TP than in the control group. Ten animal per groups (five males and five females) were also submitted to a digestibility trial. The faeces were collected at the beginning of the second week of the growing trial with the animal at 46 days of age. No obvious health problems were encountered during the digestibility experiment. The measured parameters were: digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE) and gross energy (GE). The rabbits fed diet with 0 and 3% TP showed higher apparent digestibility coefficients than the rabbits fed a diet with 6% TP, with the exception of EE digestibility, which resulted higher in the rabbits fed the 3% TP diet. Overall, dried tomato pomace may be used satisfactorily as a nutrient supplement for rabbits at levels of up to 6% in diets.