The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of prebiotic (Bio-Mos®, mannoligosacchride), probiotic (Bio-Plus® 2B, Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis) and their mix in diets, during different periods (early from 3 to 13 weeks of age, late from 5 to 13weeks of age) on growth performance, digestibility, some blood parameters, carcass characteristics, caecal microbial activity and economic efficiency of growing rabbits. One hundred and forty APRI line rabbits (Egyptian line selected) were divided and assigned randomly into seven experimental groups of 20 rabbits each (10 males + 10 females) of 5 weeks of age with an average live body weight of 582±8.58 gm. Seven experimental treatment groups were as follow: Control: Rabbits fed basal diet without any supplementation, MOS1: Rabbits fed basal diet supplemented with 1 g Bio-Mos/ kg diet from 3 to 13weeks of age (early period), PLUS1: Rabbits fed basal diet supplemented with 0.4 g Bio-Plus/ kg diet from 3 to 13 weeks of age (early period), MIX1: Rabbits fed basal diet supplemented with 1 g Bio-MOS and 0.4 g Bio-Plus/ kg diet 3 to 13 weeks of age (early period), MOS2: Rabbits fed basal diet supplemented with 1 g Bio-Mos/ kg diet from 5 to 13 weeks of age (late period), PLUS2: Rabbits fed basal diet supplemented with 0.4 g Bio-Plus/ kg diet from 5 to 13 weeks of age (late period) and MIX2: Rabbits fed basal diet supplemented with 1 g Bio-MOS and 0.4 g Bio-Plus/ kg diet from 5 to 13 weeks of age (late period).
The results of this study showed that rabbits received MIX1 treatment recorded the highest value of daily weight gain, followed by rabbits received MOS1 treatment, but no significant differences between them could be observed, while the lower value was observed for rabbits received control treatment (28.9 and 28.6 vs. 24.1 gm, P<0.001).