Performance of purebred and crossbred rabbits in Australia: Individual growth and slaughter traits

Data from 3 rabbit breeds, namely New Zealand White (N), Californian (C), and Flemish Giant (F), and their crosses, i.e. CN, FN, F(CN), and C(FN), were analysed for individual growth traits such as body weights at 5 (5WT), 6 (6WT), 7 (7WT), 8 (8WT), 9 (9WT), and 10 (10WT) weeks of age, and post-weaning average daily gain between 5 and 10 weeks of age (ADG), and individual slaughter traits such as liveweight at slaughter (SW), carcass weight (CW), and dressing percentage (DP). Data included records for individual body weights from 1345 to 1524 rabbits from 279 litters and records for slaughter traits from 919 rabbits from 245 litters. Significant sources of variation for individual growth and slaughter traits were breed, parity, month-year of birth, sex, and number weaned per litter (NW). However, parity and NW did not significantly affect ADG and DP. Slaughter traits were not significantly affected by sex. The overall least squares means for 5WT, 6WT, 7WT, 8WT, 9WT, 10WT, ADG, SW, CW, and DP were 836 g, 1021 g, 1215 g, 1390 g, 1577 g, 1791 g, 27.2 g/day, 2.28 kg, 1.23 kg, and 53% respectively. N and F purebred, and FN crossbred rabbits performed significantly ( P < 0.05) better than C purebred and crossbreds [CN and C(FN)] in all the individual growth and slaughter traits except for DP. CN performed better ( P