Reproductive Performance of Hycole Rabbit Does, Growth of Kits and Milk Chemical Composition during Nine Consecutive Lactations under Extensive Rhythm

Agnieszka Ludwiczak; Joanna Składanowska-Baryza; Beata Kuczyńska; Ewa Sell-Kubiak; Marek Stanisz

doi:10.3390/ani11092608

Reproductive Performance of Hycole Rabbit Does, Growth of Kits and Milk Chemical Composition during Nine Consecutive Lactations under Extensive Rhythm

Animals (Basel). 2021 Sep 5;11(9):2608. doi: 10.3390/ani11092608.

Authors

Agnieszka Ludwiczak¹, Joanna Składanowska-Baryza¹, Beata Kuczyńska², Ewa Sell-Kubiak³, Marek Stanisz¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Animal Breeding and Product Quality Assessment, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Słoneczna 1, 62-002 Suchy Las, Poland.
² Animal Breeding Department, Faculty of Animal Breeding, Bioengineering and Conservation, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Ciszewskiego 8, 02-786 Warsaw, Poland.
³ Department of Genetics and Animal Breeding, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Wołyńska 33, 60-637 Poznań, Poland.

Abstract

The goal of this study was to analyze the reproductive performance of does, growth of their kits, and chemical composition of their milk over nine consecutive parities in order to indicate the boundary of female reproductive profitability. The novelty of this study results from the combinations of three factors: extensive reproductive rhythm, commercial farming conditions, and a period of nine consecutive parities, showing the actual lifespan of a rabbit doe on commercial farms. The data was collected on 60 Hycole females kept at a commercial rabbit farm. Throughout the study, 32 does were excluded due to different reasons (e.g., excluded by means of selection-43.8% and mortalities-25.0%). The does were first inseminated at 28 weeks of age. Following artificial inseminations were conducted 14-15 days after each parturition. All kits were weaned at the age of 35 days. The following characteristics were analysed: body weight of rabbit does at artificial insemination, milk production per lactation, litter size, litter weight, average kit weight, and milk chemical composition. Rabbit does had a significant decrease in kindling rate between the eighth and the ninth parity (by 10.0 percentage points; p = 0.039). The litter size at weaning in the ninth parity was significantly lower to litters weaned at other analysed parities. The amount of milk produced per lactation was affected by the parity order (6.31-6.76 kg; p = 0.042). The litter weights on day 21 and 35 were the lowest at ninth parity. The content of total solids (TS), solids-not-fat, and fat was affected by the parity order on both analysed lactation days. The content of TS and fat in rabbit milk was characterized with a decreasing trend over the analysed period, on both lactation days. The results clearly indicate that rabbit does under extensive reproductive cycles characterize with a very good reproductive performance and can be successfully used for reproduction even up to the eighth parity. However, further research is needed if keeping them longer will not be profitable.

Keywords: extensive farming; kits growth; milk; rabbits production.