GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF RABBIT RAISED IN UNIVERSITY OF BENIN ENVIRONMENT

ABSTRACT

Rabbits have potential as a meat producing animal in the tropics, particularly on subsistence-type farms. Rabbits are becoming increasingly popular as an additional source of animal protein to meet the increasing demand from the ever-growing human population. This study aimed at evaluating the growth traits in rabbits. Two local breeds (New Zealand and Dutch) were studied. Eleven (11) rabbits with five (5) bucks and six (6) does of New Zealand and Dutch breed. The rabbits were mated and studied for their growth performance before and after weaning. The experiment lasted for 6 months (17th August, 2020 to 18th January, 2021). The data recorded were the litter size, weight of kits and mortality rates. The data obtained in the experiment was subjected to statistical analysis of using SPSS version 21. Results were reported as means ± SEM with P ≤ 0.05. The result of this study showed no significant difference was recorded in the litter size, weight of kits at 6 weeks, weight of kits at 10 weeks and mortality between the Dutch breed and the New Zealand breed (P>0.05). The results also showed that Parity also had no significant influence on the litter size, weight of kits at 6 weeks, weight of kits at 10 weeks and mortality (P>0.05). Results from this study revealed that there was no significant difference between the growth parameters in Dutch and New Zealand breed of rabbits. The result also revealed that parity also had no significant effect on the growth parameters of rabbits. It is recommended from this study that further studies should be carried out using more animals over a longer period of time to further confirm this result.