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Effect of remating interval and diet on the performance of female rabbits and their litters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

C. Cervera ,
J. Fernandez-Carmona ,
P. Viudes  and
E. Blas
C. Cervera
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciencia Animal, Universidad Politécnica, 46071 Valencia, Spain
J. Fernandez-Carmona
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciencia Animal, Universidad Politécnica, 46071 Valencia, Spain
P. Viudes
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciencia Animal, Universidad Politécnica, 46071 Valencia, Spain
E. Blas
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciencia Animal, Universidad Politécnica, 46071 Valencia, Spain
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Abstract

In an experiment of factorial design, female rabbits were given four diets, containing 13·0, 11·4, 10·4 and 9·7 kJ digestible energy (DE) per g and subjected to two remating intervals (R) of 1 to 2 days (intensive) or 9 days (semi-intensive) from parturition. The experiment lasted for 2 years during which 352 does produced a total of 1254 litters. The only major differences due to diet were that the diet with the highest energy concentration, and which contained 35 g/kg added fat, promoted a significantly higher energy intake in lactation (111 v. an average of 94 MJ DE) than the other diets, and thereby increased litter weight at weaning at 28 days (3·48 v. 2·99 kg). Diet and R showed no major interactive effects. The intensive treatment significantly reduced parturition interval (46 v. 52 days) and increased the output of weaned rabbits per doe per year (35 v. 29). As actual R was more variable than the theoretical R imposed by the treatments, further analyses were made by dividing the does into four groups according to the actual R. In these analyses, the effects of R on current and subsequent lactation performance were assessed separately. The main difference between the groups was that litter size increased significantly with R (e.g. litter size at birth in subsequent parities was 8·0, 9·2, 9·7 and 9·0 for mean intervals of 2, 10, 16 and 37 days). However, the same pattern of differences occurred in the current parity, indicating that it was litter size that affected R, rather than the reverse (i.e. does with small litters conceived earlier than those with larger litters).

Keywords

energy intakerabbitsremating interval
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , June 1993 , pp. 399 - 405
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1993

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