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Ninety-six weaned New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits, aged 30 day and weighing average 586±13.23 g were used in this study during winter and summer seasons. In each season, two groups were used; the first group was fed ad libitum a commercial pelleted diet and was kept untreated to serve as a control, while the other group was fed the same diet, but supplemented with 0.2% dried Arak powder. Daily weight gain, feed intake and some thermo-respiratory responses were recorded from weaning up to 12 week of age. At this time ten rabbits from each group were slaughtered and carcass characteristics were measured and blood samples were collected. Results obtained showed that final body weight at 12 week of growing NZW rabbits increased significantly (P≤0.05) with Arak inclusion under winter and summer seasons compared to control group, whereas daily feed intake had insignificant differences as Arak treatment. Dietary supplementation of Arak to NZW rabbits either in winter or summer season caused significant (P≤0.05) increased in some haematological and biochemical parameters. Interaction between season and Arak addition effects were significant (P≤0.05 or P≤0.01) on weights of carcass and its components. The lowest values of all thermo-respiratory traits were recorded for rabbits reared during winter season than those in the summer season. Also, results demonstrated that rabbits treated with Arak in the summer season retained rabbit's respiration rate and rectal and skin temperatures to nearly that of the untreated group in the winter season. The present results indicate an improvement in net profit, by about 20%, for rabbits fed diet containing Arak compared to those fed diet with no addition.

This experiment was conducted on 120 ducks (30 Dumyati, 30 Peking, 30 Muscovy and 30 Sudani ducks). The ducks were fed complete commercial diets, appropriate for respective species. Slaughter and slaughter value estimation were performed at the age of 12 weeks. Analysis of the chemical composition of meat was made on breast and thigh muscles. Cell-mediated immunity was examined by Phytohemagglutinin-P (PHA-P) at 10 weeks of age. The present result showed that Muscovy strain had significantly heavier body weight compared to remaining strains. Concerning sexual dimorphism, the Sudani strain has a greater dimorphism in body size between males and females(51.8%) followed by Muscovy (43.7%). Both Muscovy and Peking ducks possess better feed conversion ratio than Dumyati and Sudani. Regardless of breed effect, the males had significantly heavier body weight with more efficient feed conversion ratio than females. The Muscovy breed possesses better quality of meat than the Peking one due to lower body fat. With respect to cellmediated immunity, the present results showed that Dumyati breed in both sexes had significantly hyper responder to PHA-P injection at all times compared to other breeds. The results obtained in this study give some insight into the production parameters and immune response of the four breeds of ducks present in Egypt.

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