World Aquaculture 45 of 2 kg and 3 kg waste /week were produced by three and six month old rabbits and the waste might have produced sufficient primary production in the pond (Figure 4). The nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) compositions of rabbit dung were compared with goat and cow dung in (Table 2). These findings indicate that the nutrient compositions and moisture content of rabbit dung are better than those of other livestock. Economics. Fish were sold BDT 75/kg and rabbit BDT 150/ kg. The results appearing in Table 3 indicate that rabbit-fish integration is a profitable business resulting 52 percent net profit as compared to 24 percent in tilapia monoculture. However, total investment and return in tilapia rabbit integrated culture was 3.3 and 4 times higher than in tilapia monoculture. Consumer Perception The majority of the Bangladesh people are Muslim and restricted by religious laws in the foods they can eat. Therefore, one religious cleric, Mufti Md. A.K.M Fazlul Haque, was invited to present the religious evidence regarding rabbit meat consumption by Muslims. After reciting several hadiths6, he concluded that rabbit meat is totally acceptable if properly slaughtered (Figure 5). After having rabbit meat, 74 percent of the participants reported that rabbit meat was tasty; the remaining 26 percent opined the meat as medium tasty. No participant ranked the meat as not tasty. About 43 percent of the participants expressed rabbit meat as tender and 57 percent as medium soft. None reported rabbit meat as tough. The participants were asked whether they had tried rabbit meat before. About 20 percent (9 persons) had tried it once, 15 percent (7) had tried more it than once and the rest 65 percent (30) had never tried rabbit meat. Among the participants, 98 percent (45 persons) were eager to eat rabbit meat again. The Prospects of Integrated Rabbit-Fish Farming All participants in the group discussion were positive about the future prospects of integrated rabbit-fish culture in Bangladesh. According to the participants, this type of integrated culture would be highly profitable for the rural poor. Rabbitfish culture would definitely contribute to reducing protein deficiency among the people of Bangladesh. The initial investment is comparatively lower and affordable by resource poor farmers. Most of the participants also said that they were willing to buy rabbit meat from the market regularly if the meat was available (Reza 1999). Some also opined that effective training and dissemination of information is a prerequisite to popularize the rabbit-fish integration. Although no health problems with rabbits were noticed in the present study, special care should be taken in disease pre- (Continued from page 42) Fig. 4. Rabbit dung, a quality manure for fish pond. Table 1. Growth and production performance of tilapia Performance On-farm On-station Tilapia-Rabit Tilapia Tilapia-Rabit Tilapia At Stock Mean weight (g/fish) 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 Harvest Mean weight (g/fish) 181 136 150 100 Weight gain (g/fish) 179 134 148 98 SGR (% bw/day) 3.13 3.57 3.20 2.93 Gross production (kg/ha) 3569 2535 3306 2156 Net production (kg/ha) 3494 2454 3270 2120 Survival (%) 66 62 73 72 Fig. 5. Rabbit meat can be a useful protein source for poor households in Bangladesh. (Continued on page 57)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjExNDY=