Reproduction of rabbit does divergently selected for body fat content

Abstract

Body fat content of Pannon White rabbits was determined at 10 weeks of age using an EMSCAN SA-3152 type Small Animal Body Composition Analyser (TOBEC method). Based on the fat determined content, the best and worst 16% of does and the best and worst 8% of bucks were chosen and mated with each other (a fatty doe with a fatty buck and a lean doe with a lean buck). Changes in the conception rate showed that rabbits selected for a high body fat content became pregnant at a higher rate compared to rabbits with a low body fat. In contrast to this nonfatty does showed better results in the case of litter size at birth. In the case of alive born pups also the superiority of non-fatty does was observed, but the differences between the groups were less important in this case. The reason of this may be in the changes of dead born pups. The mortality rate of pups during the suckling period (till 21 days of age) showed that the mortality of the offspring of non-fatty does was higher compared to the offspring of fatty ones. As conclusion it was established, that does selected for high body fat content have mostly higher conception rate, produce smaller litters at birth, but because of the lower mortality rate of their offspring during the suckling period they have larger and heavier litters at 21 day after parturition as compared to the non-fatty ones.