Dietary Guinea hen weed (Petiveria alliacea) leaf meal improves growth performance, redox balance and inflammatory indices in rabbits raised under hot-humid tropical conditions

Abstract

Heat stress severely compromises rabbit productivity in tropical environments by inducing metabolic dysfunction, oxidative stress, and inflammation. 80 weaner rabbits with an average weight of 627.63 ± 6.56 were randomly assigned to 5 dietary treatments (16 rabbits/treatment; 2 rabbits/replicate): GLM0 (Basal diet with 0 g GLM/kg diet); GLM1 (Basal diet + 5 g GLM/kg diet); GLM2 (Basal diet + 10 g GLM/kg diet); GLM3 (Basal diet + 15 g GLM/kg diet) and GLM4 (Basal diet + 20 g GLM/kg diet). Dietary GLM significantly (P < 0.05) improved final body weight (2084.97 g in GLM0 vs. 2447.75 g in GLM4) and feed conversion ratio (3.29 vs. 2.77). Antioxidant enzyme activities in muscle increased markedly (P < 0.05), including superoxide dismutase (2.10 × 10⁻² to 5.80 × 10⁻² U/mg protein) and catalase (3.51 to 7.30 U/mg protein), while malondialdehyde concentration decreased (0.80 to 0.54 µM). Hepatic Tumour necrosis factor-α was significantly (P < 0.05) reduced (288.81 to 81.39 pg/mg protein), accompanied by an increase in interleukin-10 (52.37 to 139.05 pg/ml). Serum Aspartate Aminotransferase activity declined from 26.29 to 11.72 IU/L, and cholesterol decreased from 2.79 to 1.06 mmol/L. In conclusion, dietary GLM at 15-20 g/kg feed improved growth performance, antioxidant status, cytokine balance, and serum biochemical indices of rabbits raised under sustained hot-humid tropical conditions. However, the absence of a thermoneutral control limits direct inference regarding heat stress-specific alleviation.