Effect of dietary dehulled white lupine seed supplementation on the growth, carcass traits and chemical, physical and sensory meat quality parameters of growing-fattening rabbits

This work aimed to extend our current knowledge by obtaining novel information regarding the effect of the dietary inclusion of dehulled white lupine seeds (DWL) on the physical characteristics and sensory qualities of rabbit meat, as well as growth and carcass traits. The DWL diet was compared with a soybean meal-based diet. Feeding the DWL diet to rabbits led to lower Warner-Bratzler shear force values measured in grilled meat samples (Longissimus lumborum muscle) across fibers and this finding was confirmed in the sensory evaluation of texture in terms of higher tenderness and fibrosity of meat samples. No differences were detected by panelists in terms of intensity of aroma, the presence of a flavor typical for cooked meat, or the presence of a flavor typical for rabbit meat. Additionally, saturation and thrombogenic indexes from hind leg meat of rabbits fed the DWL diet were reduced. There was a better feed conversion ratio in rabbits fed the DWL diet.