Genotype Effect on Body Weight of Different Rabbit Breeds and Their Crosses

Abstract

Many of the developing regions of the world are now facing a double burden of a growing population and malnutrition (Weingartner, 2005). The need to go into agriculture by individuals, families, corporate bodies and the nation at large will not only improve food availability  but it will also serves as a source of employment to the ever-increasing human population.

Animal rearing is a major component of agriculture. Although the emphasis when it comes to animal production has always been on poultry production in developing countries like Nigeria, however, there are also other aspects of animal production which should be of equal interest to farmers. A good example is rabbit production. According to the FAO (2001), backyard rabbit keeping provides additional income and supplies additional protein for poor rural and urban households with low investment and labor inputs.

Availability of rabbit meat will depend on their growth. The lifetime interrelation between an individual’s inherent impulses to grow and mature in all body parts and the environment in which the impulses are expressed can be expressed with growth models (Orheruata et al., 2010). The live body weight and linear body measurements contribute significantly to the lifetime performance of the animal (Chineke, 2005).

Thus, this study is aimed at reporting the age – weight relationship of the different rabbit genotypes at weekly intervals to determine the significant effect of different genotype on rabbit body weights.