Assessment of New Zealand White and American Chinchilla Rabbits for Reproductive Traits in a Derived Savannah Ecological Zone of Nigeria

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the reproductive traits of New Zealand White (NZW) and American chinchilla (CH) rabbits reared in a derived savannah ecological zone of Nigeria under the same housing, feeding and management practices. A total number of 20 rabbits, which comprises 8 NZW and 8 CH does and two bucks each of the same breed were used for mating the does during the study which lasted for 5 months. Two (2) parities were observed for reproductive traits such as litter size at birth (LSB), litter birth weight (LBW), weaning weight (WW), gestation gain (GG), survival weight to weaning (SW) and gestation length (GL) in each female breed. Analyzed results showed a significant difference (p<0.05) for reproductive traits. American chinchilla was found to have the better averages in LSB at first kindling having a value of six (6), LBW (47.87g), WW(667.6g), SW (60%) while the NZW had a better litter weight gain (LWG, 633.20 g) than CH. At second kindling CH showed superiority in weight of the dam (WD, 2.38g), gestation gain (GG, 0.34g), survival rate to weaning (SW, 100%) and litter weight gain over NZW rabbit. No significant difference was observed for growth rate between the two breeds except at 21weeks. These findings revealed that CH and NZW can be successfully used for breeding in the derived savannah ecological zone of Nigeria based on their reproductive traits.