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Descripción
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| Three hundred cross-breed rabbits of New Zealand, California, Butterfly, Dutch and Satin, weaned at 30 days and weighing 535±8 g (standard error) were assigned at random to four treatments: 6, 12, 18 and 24 rabbits/m2 (3, 6, 9 and 12 rabbits/cage, respectively, each cage of 0.5 m2) resulting 10 cages/treatment. During the experimental period (from weaning to 2.2 kg body weight) individual live weight, cage feed intake, the incidence of diarrhoea, ringworm and injured rabbits were recorded. The maximal temperature-humidity index ranged from 31 to 35 indicating a temporal severe heat stress. At the end of the experimental period 10, 20, 30 and 30 rabbits from the treatments with densities of 6, 12, 18 and 24 rabbits/m2, respectively, wereslaughtered and carcass performance recorded. Average daily gain and feed intake from weaning to the end of experimental period decreased by 0.31±0.070 and 1.20±0.25 g, respectively, per each unit that the density increased at the beginning of the experiment (P=0.001). The length of the fattening period increased by 0.91±0.16 d (P=0.001) per each unit of increment of density. However, rabbit production (expressed in kg/m2) increased linearly and quadratically with the density (P<0.008). Cage density did not affect feeding efficiency, that was on average 0.214 g/g (P=0.37). Animals housed at the highest density compared to the average of those caged at lower density tended to show a higher incidence of ringworm (68.9 vs. 39.4%; P=0.075), a higher injured animals (16.8 vs. 3.03%; P=0.12) and a higher mortality (20.5 vs. 9.63; P=0.043). Density did not modify dressing out percentage and chilled carcass weight. Increasing density reduced linearly dorsal length (P=0.001) and reduced linearly and quadratically drip loss percentage (P=0.097 and 0.018, respectively). Based on these results, under our heat stress conditions it is recommended to avoid densities higher than 18 rabbits/m2. | |
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Internacional
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Si |
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Nombre congreso
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9th world Rabbit Congress |
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Tipo de participación
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960 |
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Lugar del congreso
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Verona (Italia) |
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Revisores
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Si |
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ISBN o ISSN
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978-88-902814-6-4 |
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DOI
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Fecha inicio congreso
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10/06/2008 |
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Fecha fin congreso
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13/06/2008 |
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Desde la página
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1631 |
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Hasta la página
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1635 |
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Título de las actas
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Proceedings of the 9th World Rabbit Congress |