Resumen

ARAUJO, José Pedro et al. Productive performance of rabbits created in cages under the effect of two densities. Rev. de Ciências Agrárias [online]. 2017, vol.40, n.spe, pp.521-530. ISSN 0871-018X.  https://doi.org/10.19084/RCA16196.

The production of rabbit`s meat using the flat deck cage systems, should consider a minimum space per animal. The stocking density should be assessed considering the effect on the animal welfare and productive capacities. The objective of this work was to study the growth of rabbits through fattening submitted to different densities. In a commercial farm 300 rabbits were distributed in 40 cages with a floor area of 3600 cm²/cage, subjected to the following densities: 6 (6C) and 9 (9C) rabbits/cage. The animals were weighed at weaning, 37 days old (d), and at 64 d and 71 d. Also, the food consumption, the temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) were registered. Data were analyzed by ANOVA, to evaluate the effect of density on body weight (BW), average daily gain (ADG) and conversion index (CI) and to assess the effect of two fattening periods in the environmental parameters. There were differences (P<0,05) in live weight at 64 and 71 d of age, with the group 6C presenting higher values relative to 9C. The stocking density for the three ages were respectively for 6C and 9C, 16.6 and 24.5 kg/m² (37 d), 38.7 and 53.7 kg/m² (64 d), 43.0 and 56.5 kg/m² (71 d). The 37-64 d, 64-71 d and 37-71 d ADG were influenced by the density, with higher growth for 6C. Concerning feeding conversion it was not observed the effect of stocking density. Mortality was higher in 9C (P<0.01). These differences may be justified by the high density stocking and competition for access to food. The values of T, HR and temperature-humidity index-ITH were 21.0°C, 86.7% and 20.7. For ITH, 100.0% of the observations were less than 27.8, indicating the absence of thermal stress.

Palabras clave : housing; fattening rabbit performance; stocking density.

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