A STUDY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF RABBIT DOE FOR SOME LITTER, REPRODUCTION AND MILK PRODUCTION TRAITS

Abstract

The experimental work of this study was carried out in a private farm in •,• Ashmoom, Menoufia Governorate, Egypt. The experimental work of this study lasted for one year of production started in September 2003 and matings were stopped in September 2004. Rabbits used in this study belong to New Zealand White breed bought from the Experimental rabbitry of the Faculty of Agriculture at Moshtohor, Banha University, Egypt. Data on 276 litters comprising 1846 young rabbits were collected to study the effect of some genetic and non-genetic factors on some economic traits in rabbits (doe litter, doe reproductive and milk production traits); and to study the phenotypic association between these traits.

Doe litter traits were number born alive per litter, in addition to litter size, litter weight, mean bunny weight per 1 itter, number dead per 1 itter in addition to gain in litter weight up to weaning at 28 days post-kindling. Doe reproductive traits were number of services per conception (NSC), days open (Do), gestation length (GL), and Kindling interval (KI). Milk production traits were milk yield during the first 21days post

kindling (MY21), milk yield during the interval oft he 2 I to 2 8 days post kindling (MY 21-28), total milk yield during the whole suckling period of 28 days (TMY28), litter milk efficiency during the first three weeks of suckling period (LME21)and all over the whole suckling period (LME28) ,in addition to, milk coefficient(MC) during the same two intervals Also individual body weight at weaning was studied in this work .