GENOTYPE × FEEDING REGIME INTERACTION: INFLUENCE ON BODY MEASUREMENTS AND GROWTH RATES OF WEANED RABBITS

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the interaction effect of four genotypes: purebred New Zealand White (NZW×NZW) and Chinchilla (CH×CH) and their reciprocal crossbreds (NZW×CH, CH×NZW) and four quantitative feeding regimes: ad libitum concentrate + ad libitum forage (A), ad libitum concentrate + 30% restricted forage (B), 30% restricted concentrate + ad libitum forage (C) and 30% restricted concentrate + 30% restricted forage (D) on post-weaning body measurements and growth rates of 70 F1 rabbits. Body weight (BW), body length (BL), head-to-shoulder length (HTSL), ear length (EL) and shoulder-to-tail tip (STTT) were measured weekly from 7 to 11 weeks. The body measurements were evaluated by analysis of variance. Absolute growth and instantaneous relative growth rates were determined from linear regression equations and Brody’s model, respectively. Body measurements differed significantly (p < 0.05) among the interactions at different weeks. Higher final mean BW (1333.33 ± 60.09 g), BL (39.67 ± 0.33 cm), HTSL (11.77 ± 0.29 cm), EL (11.60 ± 0.06 cm) and STTT (37. 00 ± 0.09 cm) were recorded from the interactions of CH×CH with D, CH×NZW with B, CH×CH with D, CH×NZW with D and NZW×NZW with B, respectively. Absolute and instantaneous relative growth rates were significantly higher for BW (182.00 g/wk, 0.09), HTSL (0.63 g/wk, 0.01), EL (0.70 g/wk, 0.03) from the interaction of CH×CH with D and for BL (3.38 g/wk, 0.05) and STTT (3.43 g/wk, 0.06) from the interactions of CH×NZW with B and NZW×NZW with C, respectively. Feeding of CH×CH with D best improved growth in this study and should be recommended for profitable rabbit production.