ABSTRACT

The study investigated the effect of breed of sire on growth performance of crossbreed rabbit in a completely randomized design (CRD). Three breeds of rabbits were used namely: New Zealand white, Chinchilla and Dutch. A total of nine does and three sires were used to produce the experimental animals. The mating ratio was I sire: 3 does. Data were collected biweekly on linear body parameters. daily feed intake and carcass characteristics on 48 progenies. Progenies from crosses between Cl-IxNZW had the highest body weight than any other progenies from Cl-lxDT. NZWxNZW but with no significant difference (P>0.05). Body length of NZWxNZW had the highest mean value (10.969±0.763) with significant difference (P<0.05) whereas progenies from DTxNZW maintained a low body length (8.30±0.171) with no significant difference (P>0.05). Similarly, heart girth at 1 61 week of age for NZWxNZW had a highest mean value from the progenies (5.80±0.233). Carcass evaluation indicates that live weight of progenies from CHxNZW had the highest weight (5 1 0±6.600)g with significant difference (P<0.05) from the progenies of DTxNZW and N/.WXNZW. Highest mean weight of (51 7±1 9.00)g was observed in the progenies of NZWxNZW with no significant difference (P>O.05). Correlation coefficient among linear body parameters at 4. 8 and I 6t1i weeks of age was either positive or negative for progenies from NZWxNZW. The association between RG and BWT (0.998) was significant (P<0.05). Also there was low negative non-significant difference (p>O.OS) in the association between BWT and ST with negative value (-0. 128) for progenies of NZWxNZW at I 6 weeks of age. The result indicates the overall superiority of progenies from CI-IxNZW over other progenies for body weight development. This could be attributed to the effect of the lavourable dominant genes brought into the crosses by the Chinch I a sires.