Effect of Coat Colour and Sex on Carcass Characteristics of Local Rabbits in Northern Region of Ghana

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the effect of coat colour and sex on carcass characteristics of local rabbits in the northern region of Ghana. Data were collected on 24 rabbits (12 males and 12 females) from six colour varieties. Animals were slaughtered according to standard abattoir procedure and parameters recorded were live weight, bled weight, skinned weight, hot carcass dressing weight, lung weight, heart weight, liver weight, kidney weight, empty intestine weight and cold carcass dressing weight. Carcass data were analyzed using GLM of SPSS to investigate the effect of colour variety and sex on carcass measurements. The effect of colour variety was not significant (p > 0.05) for all parameters measured. Sex was a highly significant (p < 0.01) source of variation for hot carcass dressing percentage and empty intestine weight. The males had higher (p < 0.01) hot carcass dressing percentage (50.57%) than the females (47.43%), and higher (p < 0.05) cold carcass dressing percentage (47.04%) than the females (44.56%). However, the females had significantly (p<0.05) heavier liver weight (47.13±2.4g) and significantly (p<0.01) heavier empty intestine weight (104.03± 5.7g) than the respective values of 40.12±2.3g and 82.78±2.5g for the males. Conclusively, coat colour of rabbits showed no substantial differences in all carcass characteristics while males had higher carcass dressing percentage (both hot carcass and cold carcass) than the females). Keywords: Dressing percentage, meat, slaughter, weight Cite this Article Shuaib MA Husein, JakperNaandam, Serekye Y.Annor, et al. Effect of Coat Colour and Sex on Carcass Characteristics of Local Rabbits in Northern Region of Ghana. Research & Reviews: Journal of Dairy Science and Technology. 2017; 6(1): 5–9p.