Effect of genotype, housing system and hay supplementation on performance and ear lesions of growing rabbits

Effect of genotype, housing system and hay supplementation on carcass traits and meat quality of growing rabbits

“…A further corroboration to the latter hypothesis came from our work on the performance and ear lesions of growing rabbits from 5 to 12 weeks of age (Szendrő et al, 2015), and also from the work by Morales et al (2009). Capra et al (2013) did not observe any difference in meat pHu between groups fed diets with or without fresh alfalfa.…”

“…Housed in pens, the rabbits were able to move more freely (Dal Bosco et al, 2002), thus their weight gain and body weight were lower (Szendrő et al, 2015). One consequence of lower weight was that the weights of carcasses, carcass parts, organs and tissues were also lower, as observed by several other authors (Dal Bosco et al, 2002;Dalle Zotte et al, 2009;.…”

“…The room temperature was 15-17°C, and the daily lighting period was 16 h. Live performances of rabbits have been reported elsewhere (Szendrő et al, 2015).…”

“…Chemical compositions of diets were shown by Szendrő et al (2015), and FA compositions of pellet and hay are presented in Table 1. Lipid extraction and fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) determination of the experimental diets was performed according to .…”

“…The addition of hay to pellets had a negative effect on body weight and weight gain (Szendrő et al, 2015) that influenced the weight of carcass, carcass parts and tissues. Feed intake is regulated by the energy level of the diet (Lebas, Coudert, de Rochambeau, & Thébault, 1997) and rabbits eat more if the energy content is low or the fiber level is high.…”