UNIVERSITAT POLITÈCNICA DE VALÈNCIA ESCUELA TÉCNICA SUPERIOR DE INGENIERÍA AGRONÓMICA Y DEL MEDIO NATURAL Grado en Ingeniería Agroalimentaria y del Medio Rural

COMPARACIÓN DE LA CRÍA DE CONEJAS ALOJADAS EN GRUPO E INDIVIDUAL TRABAJO FINAL DE GRADO CURSO ACADÉMICO:

2015-2016 ALUMNA:

CARMEN CANO AGUILAR TUTORA:

CONCHA CERVERA FRAS

VALENCIA, 29 DE JULIO DE 2016

TITLE: COMPARISON OF BREEDING SYSTEMS FOR RABBIT DOES HOUSED IN GROUP AND INDIVIDUAL CAGES

ABSTRACT In this study we compared different productive and sanitary indicators associated to cage design with the aim to evaluate its influence on the production and welfare of reproductive rabbit does. The study began with 50 does, 25 of them were allocated in individual cages enriched with a platform (3686 cm2) and the remaining 25, in 4 group-housing-cages (4000 cm2/rabbit). At three months of life females were allocated in the corresponding cage and stayed there during fourth consecutive kindling. During the whole experience, females were fed ad libitum by manual distribution of feedstuff and feed consumption was controlled. It was observed that the housing conditions did not affect to the majority of parameters related with the reproductive performance of does: interval kindling to effective insemination, number of kits per kindling, litter weight, individual weight of kits, feed consumption of rabbits does, as well as milk yield. However, alive litter weight at birth tend to be heavier in the group of individual-caged females (631 g vs 583 g; P=0.0797). Moreover, rabbit does tend to be also heavier at first insemination (3862 g vs 3672 g; P=0.0618) due to a significant increase of their growth (18.1 g/d vs 12.9 g/d; P