PERFORMANCE, PHYSIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS AND CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF GROWING CALIFORNI RABBITS REARED in DIFFERENT CAGE DENSITIES. | ||
| Egyptian Poultry Science Journal | ||
| Article 7, Volume 40, Issue 1, January 2020, Pages 103-114 PDF (711.92 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/epsj.2020.78749 | ||
| Author | ||
| Ahmed M. A. Hussein | ||
| Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Assuit University, Assuit, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| The current study was carried out into two separate experiments to study the effect of different cage densities on growth performance, physiological parameters and carcass characteristics of growing rabbits. Thirty-six of six-week-old weaned California males and females were used. Both males and females were divided into three different cage density treatments, one animal (single), two animals (double) or three animals (triple) per cage. Feed intake was daily recorded, while body weight weekly measured. In addition, both daily gain and feed conversion ratio are calculated weekly. At the end of the experiments blood samples were collected from all animals, plasma cortisol total protein, albumin, and glucose were measured. At the end of experiment all meals were slaughtered for carcass weight, measurements, parts and individual muscle weight were recorded. The most remarkable results are, high cage density (double and/or triple) significantly decreased (P<0.05) feed intake, body weight and daily gain in both males and females. On the other hand, low cage density improved feed conversion ratio(P<0.01) in males only. On the other hand, high cage density increases (P<0.05) plasma cortisol, total protein, globulin and glucose concentration. In addition, high density cages treatments decrease (P<0.05) carcass weight, measurements, carcass parts and individual muscle weight. The current study revealed that rearing both meals and females in single cages during growing period improve their performance and carcass characteristics. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| cage density; feed intake; carcass characteristics; physiological parameters | ||
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