The Animal Biology

Bìol. Tvarin. 2020; 22(1): 41–45.
https://doi.org/10.15407/animbiol22.01.041
Received 03.01.2020 ▪ Accepted 25.02.2020 ▪ Published online 01.05.2020

Productive characteristics of rabbits at industrial crossbreeding of Poltava Silver, Soviet Chinchilla and New Zealand White breeds

Cherkasy Experimental Station of Bioresurces,
76 Pasterivska str., Cherkasy, 18036, Ukraine, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The purpose of the study was to substantiate schemes of crossbreeding of rabbits in the population of Poltava Silver breed using Soviet Chinchilla and New Zealand White breeds to obtain a local stock of young animals for intensification of rabbit breeding. Three groups of Poltava Silver does of 15 heads each were selected for the experiment by the method of pair-analogues. Rabbits of the control group (C) of the Poltava silver (PS) breed were fertilized by males of the same group. Rabbits of the II group of the Poltava silver breed were fertilized by males of the Soviet Chinchilla (SC) breed. Rabbits of the III group were fertilized by males of New Zealand White breed (NZ). The offspring of control and experimental groups was divided on the principle of analogues in three groups 20 animals in each group, and at the age of 35 days rabbit exterior and meat quality were evaluated. The research has shown that crossing make a positive effect on reproductive qualities of rabbits, especially in combination of the Poltava Silver breed females with males of the Soviet Chinchilla. The second experimental group was characterized by highest litter size, litter weight at birth and litter weight at weaning. The highest percentage of survival in rabbits youth weaned at 35 days was observed in PS × NZ group (94.5 %). An important indicator correlating with the slaughter and meat quality of animals is chest girth/body length index, which was significantly higher in hybrid young rabbits of the III experimental group, outperforming the group II analogues by 4.11 % and control by 8.26 %. Greater combinatorial influence on the reproductive qualities of does had a combination of Poltava Silver females with Soviet Chinchilla males. Poltava Silver and New Zealand White predominated in the meat and slaughter indices, in particular in meat and slaughtering indices.

Key words: rabbits, crossbreeding, fertility, slaughter

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