The effect of housing system on carcass traits and meat quality of rabbit.
Sz. Metzger, K. Kustos, Zs. Szendrö, A. Szabó, Cs. Eiben, I. Nagy
Abstract
One hundred and sixty one weaned New Zealand White rabbits were housed in 0.4x0.4 m cages (3 rabbits/cage, 18.7 rabbits/m2) or in 3x3.3 m pen on deep litter (80 rabbits/pen, 8.1 rabbits/m2). At 13 weeks of age the pen-housed rabbits (n=52) had lower body weight (2318 vs 2437 g; P<0.01) and dressing percentage (59.8 vs 61.0 %; P<0.01), higher proportion of the fore part (32.3 vs 31.4 %; P<0.01) and hind part (40.3 vs 37.9 %; P<0.001), and lower proportion of the intermediate part of the carcass (27.5 vs 30.7 %; P<0.001) than the cage-housed rabbits (n=68). The percentage of perirenal fat was lower in the pen-housed rabbits (0.45 vs 0.83 % P<0.001) than in the cage-housed group. The meat on the hind legs (HL) and the m. longissimus dorsi (MLD) of pen-housed rabbits contained more water (HL: 75.0 vs 73.9 %; MLD: 74.6 vs 74.0 %; P<0.001) but less protein (HL: 21.3 vs 21.5 %; MLD: 23.6 vs 23.9 %; P< 0.05) and fat (HL: 2.48 vs 3.36 %; MLD: 0.65 vs 0.90 %; P<0.05) than those kept in cages. The housing system had no effect on ash content and pH value of the meat samples.
Keywords
Housing; rabbits; carcass; meat quality
Full Text:
PDF
Metrics powered by PLOS ALM
Cited-By (articles included in Crossref)
This journal is a Crossref Cited-by Linking member. This list shows the references that citing the article automatically, if there are. For more information about the system please visit Crossref site
1. The effect of sex, storage time and muscle type
on the quality French Lop rabbit meat
Agnieszka Ludwiczak, Marek Stanisz, Marta Bykowska, Joanna Składanowska, Łukasz Sikora, Piotr Ślósarz
Roczniki Naukowe Polskiego Towarzystwa Zootechnicznego vol: 12 issue: 2 first page: 45 year: 2016
doi: 10.5604/01.3001.0013.6967
