EFFECT OF DIETARY ZINC SUPPLEMENTATION ON PRODUCTIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCES OF RABBITS

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the effect of dietary zinc (Zn) supplementation on productive and reproductive performances of rabbit. A couple of experiments were conducted using New Zealand rabbits at the Rabbit Research Farm, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur, Bangladesh. In Experiment-I, 28 rabbit does (age 14 months) were randomly assigned into four dietary treatment groups (T0, T1, T2 and T3) that were supplemented with 0 mg, 50 mg, 100 mg and 150 mg of Zn/kg feed, to investigate the effect of Zn on the reproductive performances. In Experiment-II, 60 post weaned kits (age 5 weeks) were also randomly assigned into another five dietary treatment groups (T0, T1, T2, T3 and T4) that were supplemented with 0 mg, 50 mg, 100 mg, 150 mg and 200 mg of Zn/kg feed, to investigate the effect of Zn on the productive performance. The results revealed that the dietary supplementation of Zn increased (P<0.05) live weight gain of pregnant does, conception rate, litter size and individual kit weight at birth and weaning but litter weight only at weaning. On the other hand, dietary supplementation of Zn reduced (P<0.05) the kit mortality, though Zn supplementation did not affect the gestation period and litter weight of kits at birth. It is not unlikely that adaptive immunity from mammary gland of does fortified with zinc impacted the kittens and improved their survival rate. The present findings also revealed that the dietary supplementation of Zn improved (P<0.05) the productive performances of post weaned kits in terms of live weight gain and feed efficiency by almost same amount of feed intake. On the contrary, blood parameters (Hb, PCV, red blood cell and white blood cell counts) were also affected by the Zn except for ESR and but were within their normal range indicating the safe use of Zn. Thus, the results suggested that the dietary Zn can be an added effectively to the concentrate feed to improve the productive and reproductive performances of rabbits. In conclusion, supplementation of Zn to the diets of rabbit acts as an ameliorative tool of productive and reproductive traits of rabbits.