Performance of weanling rabbits fed aflatoxin treated diets with sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) fruit peel

The performance of twenty four 6-8 week old apparently healthy male and female weanling rabbits mixed breed fed diets treated with aflatoxin, which contained 5% sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) fruit peel meal was evaluated in an 8 feeding trial. Sweet peels were collected from sellers, sun-dried milled. Fungal strain Aspergillus flavus cultured inoculated into groundnut cake to produce aflatoxin using solid state fermentation method. Treated incubated for seven days incremental incubation temperature 20-25 ºC autoclaved, milled and, extracted 10 g sample the 50 ml chloroform, its concentration quantified by Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). included at 0, 50, 100 150 gram grower rabbit T1, T2, T3 T4, having 0 ppb, ppb respectively. randomly allocated rate six per diet, housed singly hutches, served water free choice. result showed significant (P<0.05) negative effect  on final live weight, weight gain, feed intake, conversion ratio, consumption, protein intake efficiency ratio as dietary increased ppb. Also, had effect dressed carcass length kidney. Total residue varied significantly μg/kg - 2.76μg/kg,  1.94μg/kg 0.85μg/kg liver, kidney meat tissue, respectively Performance response affected negatively thereby showing inability inclusion mitigate adverse consequences rabbit. Key words: Growth responses, residual level, visceral organs, mitigate.