Effect of some management factors on productive performance in rabbits / Magda Mahmoud Fadel Seleem Aziz ; Supervised Manal Ahmed Fouad Abdellatif , Kassem Gabr Kassem

Thesis (M.Sc) - Cairo University - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine - Department of Animal Behavior and Management

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of post-weaning feed restriction of fattening rabbits on their productive performance, behavior, physiology, and histopathological picture. A total of 48 weaned rabbits of 35-day age with average weight of 633.59 ± 34.5 g were divided randomly into 4 groups 212 rabbits per group3 as follows: the first group was the control group (C), rabbits were fed ad libitum throughout the whole experimental period 27 weeks post-weaning;3 the remaining three groups (T1, T2 and T3) were the restricted groups, where the rabbits were restricted to 50 g feed/ head/day for one week (T1), two weeks (T2), and three weeks (T3). At the end of each restriction period, rabbits of all groups were returned to ad-libitum feeding till the end of the experiment. The average live body weight, body weight gain, feed intake, FCR, mortality, and morbidity were recorded weekly till the end of the experimental period for all groups. Feeding, drinking, grooming and resting behavior activities were recorded for rabbits of all groups. Blood samples were collected from rabbits of all groups at end of restriction and at marketing for determination of some biochemical parameters. For histomorpholoigcal examination, two rabbits from each restricted group were sacrificed at the end of restriction and another two at marketing 2the same was done for the control group at the same corresponding ages.3 The following organs were examined: small intestine, cecum, sacculus rotandus, appendix, liver, spleen, and mesenteric lymph node. The obtained results revealed that feed restriction has a positive effect on growth performance, where T2 group recorded the highest marketing weight (1763 ± 36.27 g)

Issued also as CD