The Cuban Brown rabbit breed. Characterization of reproductive performance in western Cuba

Resumen

To characterize the reproductive performance of the Cuban Brown Creole rabbit breed, 7,488 mating, 5,876 born litters, 5,601 live litters and 3,567 weaned litters were used between 2014 and 2018. The traits fertility, total and live born, viability at birth and at weaning, number of weaned, litter weigh and individual at weaning were studied. Statistical analysis was performed with the SAS statistical package. The statistic general mean, coefficient of variation and standard deviation were determined. The influence of the trimester (4 classes) and the year (5 levels) was analyzed with a mixed generalized linear model, whose random effect was the breeder in each mating/ kindling. Pearson correlations were also calculated between the studied traits. It was shown that the reproductive performance of this breed was affected by the trimester (P <0.05) and the year (P <0.0001). The 75 % of the characters showed better performance, when the mating and kindling occurred in the first trimester with respect to the third. The effect of the year showed the influence on the conditions of each year, with maximum expression in 2014. The trait live born was the most stable in time, an advantageous performance for the prolificacy of this breed. High correlations (+0.80) were found between total and live born, and between the weaned number and the litter weight. The reproductive performance of this breed is conditioned by environmental factors, so by improving its management, its productivity can be increased and a sustainable use of this zoogenetic resource can be made.
Key words: rabbits, local breed, reproduction, environmental effects.