| dc.description.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. | en_US |
