Reproductive ability of female rabbits in industrial intensive breeding

Abstract

Goal. To study the reproductive ability of female rabbits of the breed Poltavske sriblo for industrial crossing with males of 2 breeds — Radianska shynshyla and Novozelandska bila, to determine their effectiveness in conditions of intensive breeding. Methods. The study was conducted in 2023–2024 in the conditions of the Cherkasy Agricultural Experimental Station of Biological Resources of the NAAS on rabbits of 3 breeds, namely: Poltavske sriblo (PS), Radianska shynshyla (RS), Novozelandska bila (NB), and their hybrids. For crossing by the method of pairs-analogs, 5 groups of female rabbits of purebred and 2-bred (F1) origin (10 animals in each) were selected. The obtained data were processed by methods of mathematical statistics using the Statistica 12.1 software package and the Microsoft Excel 2010 program using the algorithms of M.I. Kalinin and V.V. Yeliseev. Results. Due to the successful crossing of breeds and proper maintenance conditions, the best genetic combinations of rabbits, such as 1/2PS1/2NB ´ NB and 1/2PS1/2RSH ´ NB, significantly dominated the control group (PS ´ PS): for multiple fertility — by 9.2%, for large fertility — by 5.1%, for milkiness — by 8.5%, for the number of — by 14.0% (p < 0.05), and for the weight of the nest at the time of weaning rabbits at the age of 28 days — by 41.2% (p < 0.01). Conclusions. The use of female rabbits of the variety Poltavske sriblo in industrial crossing, and male rabbits of varieties Radianska shynshyla and Novozelandska bila, made it possible to increase maternal indicators. Thus, the index of reproductive qualities of the female rabbits was the highest in combinations of 1/2PS1/2NB ´ B — 122.3 — and 1/2PS1/2RSH ´ NB — 126.5. The high reproductive capacity of rabbits positively correlated with the subsequent fattening and meat productivity of descendants, which made selection more effective than industrial intensive breeding of rabbits.