Relationships amongst carcass traits in some breeds of domestic rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) bucks

Thirty-two (32) rabbit bucks of 15-16 weeks (105-112 days) of age comprising of 10 bucks of New Zealand white (NZ), 11 bucks of Chinchilla (CH), and 11 bucks of Dutch (DH) breed with an average weight of 1266 g were used and the experiment lasted for 56 days with each rabbit in a pen. The study to determine relationships amongst carcass traits in some breeds of domestic rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) bucks. All the parameters were weighed in grams with a digital weighing scale while the dressing percentage was calculated. The carcass traits taken were heart, liver, kidney, caecum, lungs, stomach, intestine, live weight, slaughtered weight, dressing weight, fore limb, thoracic cage, loin, skin, head, shank, hind limb, testis, body weight, dressing per cent. The degree of relationships amongst the carcass traits was determined using the Pearson Correlation Coefficient Procedure of SAS. There were several relationships with correlation coefficients ranging from high to low and positively and negatively correlated. The results obtained for relative organs gave positive and significantly (p<0.05) high correlation coefficients between heart and liver (r=0.663) and between intestine and stomach (r=0.570). There was no significant (p>0.05) difference amongst other relative organs but with positive correlation coefficients except between liver and lungs, kidney and caecum, caecum and lungs, caecum and intestine, lungs and stomach, lungs and intestine. For the other carcass traits (live weight, slaughtered weight, dressing weight, fore limb, thoracic cage, loin, skin, head, shank, hind limb, testis, body weight, and dressing per cent), the highest and positive correlation coefficient was obtained between live weight and slaughtered weight (r=0.992), and the least was between shank and testis (r=0.025). It also revealed that live weight had a highly significant (p<0.01) effect on slaughtered weight, dressing weight, fore limb thoracic cage, loin, skin, and hind limb. Therefore, selection for improvement should be carried out on carcass traits with high and positive correlation. More research should be conducted on relationships between carcass traits of domestic rabbit bucks of different breeds and ages.