EFFECTS OF ADDING LINSEED OIL TO RABBITS DOES’ DIETS ON SOME PRODUCTIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE TRAITS

Abstract

Twenty mature New-Zealand White (NZW) rabbits does (about 5-6 months of age and 2.75 - 3.00 kg of life body weight) were used in the present study. The study aimed to test three levels of linseed oil with soluble (1.5%, 3.0% and 4.5%) as feed supplementation to basal diet on some productive and reproductive performance of rabbit does. Some blood parameters as well as the economic efficiency of using these levels were also studied.  The obtained results show that 3.0% linseed oil supplementation significantly decreased (P≤0.05) the number of services per conception (NSC), days open (DO) and kidding interval (KI) without affecting the length of gestation period (GPL) compared to those of the control group. No significant effect on litter size (LS) as well as daily weight gain (DWG) from birth till 35 days of age due to different levels of linseed oil supplementation compared to those of the control group. While, supplementation with 4.5% linseed oil significantly improved (P≤0.05) litter weight (LW) and mean bunny weight (MBW) of NZW’ does. Although there were no significant differences among the experimental groups in mortality rate (MR%) during the first two periods (birth-21 and 21-35 days of age), the 3.0% linseed oil treatment gave the lowest (P≤0.05) MR%. Blood parameters showed that linseed oil supplementation groups had the highest (P≤0.05) total protein (TP) level recorded after the first parity followed by those recorded at the end of the experiment and after the second parity, respectively. The level of globulin (Glob.) was increased but without significant difference after the first parity and the albumin (Alb.) concentrations gave its high values in the 3.0% oil supplementation group. The highest total lipids (TL) obtained with 1.5% and 4.5% oil supplementation groups without significant differences between them, but such differences were significant with the other two experimental groups (control and 3.0% oil supplementation). The supplementation of diets with linseed oil generally tended to decrease cholesterol level compared to that of the control. The control group recorded the highest (P≤0.05) high density lipids (HDL) values compared to other groups of linseed oil supplementation which were insignificantly differed. Supplementing does’ diets with linseed oil resulted to significantly increase tri-glycerides (TG) (P≤0.05) especially after the first parity and at the end of the experiment. The 3.0% linseed oil supplementation recorded the lowest (P≤0.05) TG value among the other two supplemented groups at the end of the experiment. Conclusively, it could be concluded that supplementing diets of rabbit’ does with 3.0% linseed oil would impact positively on dams reproductive, productive traits and their health status. From economic point of view, the addition of oil as a source of Omega-3-polyunsaturated fatty acids decreased average feed consumed per parity by about 13% and improved relative economic efficiency by about 40%.