EVALUATION OF LITTER TRAITS AND DEVELOPMENT OF SOME BODY ORGANS IN TWO BREEDS OF RABBIT

Abstract

This experiment was carried out using 65 purebred kits born in 3 parities. The purebred kits comprised of 31 Chinchilla (CHC) kits and 34 New Zealand White (NZW) kits. The mating plan followed the procedure outlined by Becker, where pure CHC males were mated to pure CHC females and pure NZW males mated to pure NZW females. The study was conducted at the Animal Science Departmental Research Farm, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. Data collected are; Litter traits at birth and at weaning which includes: Gestation Length (GL), Litter Size at Birth (LSB), Litter weight at Birth (LBW), Litter Size at Weaning (LSW), Litter Weight at Weaning (LWW) and Preweaning Mortality (PWM). Development of some body organs monitored include; ear unfolding. first fur, eruption of upper and lower incisor, eye opening, full fur, nipple or areola and the number of nipples counted in both male and female kits. Data collected was subjected to analysis of variance using the General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of SAS. The significantly different means were compared using Duncan's Multiple Range Test. Result showed a significant difference (P<0.05) in LSB, LWB, LWW and PWM between the two breeds in parity 1, 2 and 3. NZW was superior in terms of LSB (11-12) as well as LWB (411-458g). However, CHC was superior to NZW in terms of LWW (2240-3204g) and PWM (11-27%). Result for the development of body organs revealed number of days for ear unfolding (8-9:9-10), eye opening (10-12), upper and lower incisor eruption (19-21), nipple appearance (16-17:13-16), first fur appearance (5-7) and number of nipples (7-13) in Chinchilla and New Zealand breeds. It was concluded that breed affects preweaning litter traits while development of body organs was affected by sex and breed but not by parity. CHC was recommended for higher litter weight at weaning because their good mothering ability.