Carcass Characteristics of New Zealand White Rabbits at Market Age
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2020-05
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Abstract
The present study was conducted to analyze the carcass characteristics of New Zealand White
rabbits reared under tropical conditions of India. For this study, a total of 38 male rabbits of 4 –
5 months age selected randomly from Post Graduate Research Institute in Animal Sciences,
TANUVAS, Tamil Nadu, which were fed with concentrate (16% CP) and Desmanthus fodder
during the rearing period. The animals were slaughtered by cutting the jugular veins and carotid
arteries, various carcass parameters and cut up parts weight were recorded and analyzed as per
the standard methods. In the present study, the mean live weight at slaughter and carcass weight
observed were 1772.63 ± 40.65 g and 911.92 ± 21.05 g respectively with a dressing percentage
of 51.55 ± 0.56 and an edible to inedible ratio of 1.69 ± 0.04. The average value of various cut
up parts such as fore limb weight, thorax weight, loin weight, abdominal flap weight, rump and
hind limb weight and shank weight were 141.91 ± 4.37 g, 177.44 ± 4.96 g, 168.74 ± 4.98 g,
67.31 ± 2.05 g, 292.30 ± 6.95 g and 51.13 ± 1.29 g respectively which shows high correlation
with live weight especially the prime cut up parts such as loin (0.805), rump and hind limb
(0.908) with a significance level of 0.01. From the study, it is evident that among the various
foragers like sheep, goat, cattle and rabbit, the dressing percentage of the rabbits seemed to be
high with better meat to bone ratio.
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TNV_IJCMAS_2020_9(5)2720-2725