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8 M. Brzozowski, P. Slrzemecki

of Bacillus cereus var. toyoi is ideał be-cause it has an advantage due to its good heat stability that is important because relatively high values of temperaturę oc-cur during pelletizing of animals' feed. The vegetative form of B. toyoi spores ąuickly germinates in the intestinal tract. The rapid germination ratę of B. toyoi has been dcmonstrated in piglets (Thelen and Pallauf 1996). 1 g of used prepara-tion contains 110⁹cfu (colony forming units) Bacillus cereus var. toyoi. The lev-el 400 mg of preparation per 1 kg feed was used in experimental group.

Experiment started at weaning (35 days) and finished at 84 days.

The following data were collected:

1.    Body weight at weaning and than every week up to 84 days of age.

2.    Surviving ratę from weaning to the end of fattening.

3.    Feed intake during fattening.

4.    Dressing percentage.

The results were statistically evalu-ated by analysis of one-way variance us-ing SPSS 14.0 PL for Windows (SPSS 2006).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The body weight changes during fattening are presented in Table 1.

Animals, that were randomized to the experimental group (EG), were heavier than those in the control group (CG). The difference was statistically significant and was maintained during the first period of fattening (up to age of 56 days). The aver-age weight of animals at the end of fattening proved to be similar in both groups. Weight gain during the fattening period were significantly higher in the control group. This results indicates, that the used preparation did not have positive impact to the rabbits growth and body gain.

The fattening results of rabbits are presented in Table 2.

On rabbit farms, it is estimated that the mortality of young weaned is about 10-12% (Bielański et al. 2002). In the experimental group this result was much morę favorable (3%), which may result from the application of probiotics. It was also obseryed better health status of the

TABLE 1. Body weights and gain during fattening (x ±sd)

Rabbits age (days)	Average body weight (g)
	Control group
35	771^a±120	869.30^a±165
42	1 016.32^A±152	1 138.94^A±180
49	1 218.84^a±229	1 350.73^8 ±256
56	1 395.68 ±283	1 468.06 ±268
63	1 629 ±278	1 680.76 ±232
70	1 874.64 ±277	1 891.09 ±247
77	2 119.40 ±290	2 125.55 ±259
84	2 387 ±310	2 342.55 ±266
Body gain from 35 to 84 days (g)	1 616^a±256	1 473.25^a±203

A - data in rows differ statistically at p < 0.01; a - dala in rows differ statistically at p < 0.05.