CARCASS YIELD AND ORGANOLEPTIC PROPERTIES OF MEAT FROM RABBITS FED DIETS CONTAINING BREWERS’ SORGHUM MASH OFFAL

Abstract

Brewer’s Sorghum Mash Offal (BSMO) is a local brewery by-product discarded after extraction of traditional malted alcoholic drink called burkutu in some Northern Nigerian communities. To evaluate the carcass yield and organoleptic properties of weaner rabbits meat fed diets containing non-conventional BSMO as replacement for wheat offal,  30 weaned rabbits aged between 5 to 6 weeks and of mixed breed, weighing between 410-450g were used. The rabbits were allotted into five dietary treatments; T1(0%BSMO), T2(25%BSMO), T3(50%BSMO), T4(75%BSMO) and T5(100%BSMO). Each treatment was replicated three times containing two rabbits per replicate in a completely randomized design and managed for 90 days. Data on carcass yield and organoleptic properties were collected and subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results indicated that brewers sorghum mash had significantly affected (P<0.05) all carcass characteristics except lungs weight. Rabbits fed BSMO performed better than those fed control diets. Also, rabbits fed T5 (100% BSMO) had higher live weight (1695.0g), carcass weight (1218.0) and dressing percentage (71.9%). Results on organoleptic properties indicated that BSMO had not significantly affected (P>0.05) all organoleptic parameters measured. However, the overall acceptability indicated that meat samples of rabbits fed BSMO had better performance ranking 1^st (T5 and T4) and 3^rd (T3 and T2) than the samples from the T1 (control diet ranking 5^th). It can therefore be concluded that 100% BSMO can be included to conveniently replace wheat offal in the diet of weaned rabbits to improve carcass yield and palatability of rabbit meat.