Effect of dietary contamination with mercury on the performance of rabbits

This work was designed to study effects of HgSO4 on rabbits performance when added in the mash diet for 7 weeks with concentrations of 0, 150, and 300 ppm as Hg (6 animals/group). The Hg application caused mortality associated with diarrhoea, haemorrhage, oedema and liver and stomach necrosis. The contaminated diets caused significantly increased feed intake, drinking water consumption and live body gain. Mercury did not affect organ percentages significantly (P greater than or equal to 0.05). Serum analyses reflected a significant (P less than or equal to 0.05) rise in the glucose content (for the animals fed the 300 ppm Hg-diet) with a slight decrease in Ca level and activity of both transaminases GPT and GOT. The most affected organ by the application of Hg was the liver which reflected a slight increase in its dry matter substance, significant increase (P less than or equal to 0.01) in the ether extract percentage on the 300 ppm Hg-diet and severe reduction (P less than or equal to 0.01) in its vitamin A as well as in the iron content (P less than or equal to 0.05) on the 300 ppm Hg-diet. The highest level of Hg added caused an increase (P less than or equal to 0.01) in bone magnesium.