Data on reproductive performance of 288 doe rabbits were analyzed to study the effects of month and year of kindling, parity, mating buck and does within buck. Measurements of reproductive performance were: number of services per conception (NSC), gestation length (GL), litter size and weight at birth and at weaning (BLS, BLWT, WLS and WEWT, respectively) and mortality (MW) and sex ratio at weaning (WSR). The repeatability of these traits was estimated by mixed model analysis. Parity had no significant effect on the traits studied except for GL and NSC where the effect was significant. Most of the reproductive traits were significantly affected by year and month of kindling. Mating buck was found to be an important source of variation for NSC, BLWT, WEWT, GL and WLS. Due to low repeatabilities, with estimates ranging from 0.0 to 0.12, all reproductive traits should be considered when evaluating doe records for selection purposes. |
