This experiment was carried out to evaluate the effects of dietary starch reduction, in diets for growing White New Zealand rabbits, using soybean oil, on the performance and carcass yield of the animals. The rabbits were weaned at 30 days and slaughtered at 60 days of age. The experimental design was in randomized blocks with four treatments (2.2, 3.3, 4.4 and 5.5% of soybean oil addition to the diets) and five replicates, with 15 animals per treatment. Daily weight gain, daily feed intake, feed conversion rate, mortality and carcass yield were evaluated. There was no effect (P>0.05) due the treatments on the evaluated parameters. It was concluded that, at the conditions of this work, the addition of soybean oil in growing rabbit diets up to the level of 5.5% did not affect the productive performance.
Carcass yield; energy sources; performance
