Growth performance, carcass characteristics and some hematological parameters of rabbits treated with recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbst)‎ as growth enhancer

Abstract EN

In Egypt, there is a great necessity for improving production to fulfils the over growing demand for animal proteins.

Rabbit meat provides an excellent source of protejn for human consumption and may play a significant role in solving a part of meat shortage gap in Egypt.

One hundred and twenty Filander rabbits were reared, just after weaning, to determine the effect of recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST) injection on growth performance and carcass characteristics.

A dose of 0, 0.75 and 1.5 mg were injected biweekly basis throughout the experiment.

Experimental rabbits were fed ad libitum pelleted growing rations to serve their nutritional requirements for growing period of rabbits according to NRC (1994).

The present results revealed that the daily feed intake did not affected significantly by rbST injection.

Conversely, the rbST significantly increased daily weight gain and significantly improved feed conversion ratio in both doses.

With respect to carcass characteristics, the dressing percentage of rabbits was significantly increased with rbST injection 'at both dosages.

Similar trend was noticed for weight of internal organs (spleen, kidney and liver).

The rbST injection in both doses significantly increased hematocrit level, plasma total protein and albumen.

With respect to liver function, it could be noticed that the rbST significantly improved the liver function via reduced the AST and ALT activity.

In conclusion, these data indicate that rbST is an efficacious method of improving growth performance and carcass characteristics in rabbits.

Key words; Rabbits, performance, blood parameters, rbST