Desempenho e Características de carcaças de coelhos da raça Lionhead

Abstract

Rabbit breeding stands out because of its rapid growth, reproductive and prolific precocity and can play an important role in human food, as it contributes to the increase of meat production, with high protein value and low cholesterol. In this way the objective of this work was to evaluate the characteristics and performance of carcass of Lionhead rabbits. Seventeen rabbits were used, 10 females and 7 males approximately 4 months old. All animals received the same diet (formulated ration). At the end of the 53-day experiment, the animals were slaughtered, then individually weighed, identified, packaged and refrigerated. Longissimus lumborium muscle was removed for later laboratory analysis (cooking losses, carcass characteristics, color components, edible viscera weight, initial and final carcass pH, mean daily gain and feed conversion). The observed data for the variables of cooking losses, carcass characteristics, color components, initial and final carcass pH did not show significant differences (p <0.05), except edible viscera weight, average daily gain and feed conversion. Considering the results and comparisons studied, there are no differences in rabbit carcass in relation to sex. Thus, both male and female can be used for meat production.