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Abstract The present study was conducted at the Animal Production Department, Mansoura University, while the experimental work was carried out on the flock of New Zealand White rabbits belonging to Sakha Animal Production Station, Animal Production Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture during the period from October 2002 to January 2003. Four isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets were formulated to study the effect of source and level of dietary carbohydrate (starch) on growth performance, digestibility coefficients, blood parameters, caecal activity, carcass quality, and anatomical and histometric developmentand of growing NZW rabbits from 21 to 112 days of age. A total of 80 NZW rabbits weaned at 28 days of age was divided into 4 groups, 20 animals in each (10 males and 10 females). The dietary groups were different in source and level of carbohydrate, being 25% barley in the 1st group (25B), 15% barley+10% corn in the 2nd group (15B10C), 10% barley +15% corn (15C10B) in the 3rd group and 25% corn (25C) in the 4th group. from the obtained results it could be concluded that the critical changes of morphohistological structure in the digestive tract of rabbits occurred from weaning up to 56 days of age, meanwhilw, the complete development of the digestive tract occurred morphologically from 56 days up to 112 days of age. Feeding rabbits on diets containing 25% barley from weaning up to 56 days of age and diets containing 15% corn and 10% barley from 56 days up to 112 days of age reflected beneficial effects on growth performance, pronounced changes in morphohistological development of the digestive tract and the lowest health risk index. |