UDC 636.934.571
DOI: 10.36871/vet.zoo.bio.202308013
Authors
Elizaveta G. Kvartnikova,
Andrey P. Konovalov,
Scientific Research Institute of Fur-Bearing Animal Breeding and Rabbit Breeding
named after V. A. Afanas'ev, Rodniki, Russia
Olga Yu. Seraya,
Institute of Theoretical And Experimental Biophysics Russian Academy of Sciences,
Pushchino, Russia
Abstract
Rabbit industry, being an advanced and highly profitable branch of animal industry, is one of
the business barometers for a country. Though 78,5 % of rabbit meat is produced in Russia is
produced by individual farmers, intensity of industrial rabbit breeding is growing. Feeding management
underlies any branch of animal industry, since the cost of feeding takes 60–70 % of all
branch expenses, and, what is more, over 90 % of animals diseases are the result of the errors in
their feeding. At the end of 2020, rabbit meat production in Russia amounted to 19,6 thousand tons.
During the 2016–2020 period it increased by 8 %.
All over the world, scientists pay special attention to the nutrient and energy requirements
of rearing, pregnant and lactating rabbits, since just these animals determine the reproduction
process and, finally, production output. The review analyzes the results of scientific research on
feeding rabbits during the reproduction period with complete granular compound feeds with different
ratios of nutrients and energy. The authors note that the digestible energy and protein levels
of the pregnant rabbit diets in Russian and foreign experiments are the same, while the fiber level
differs significantly. Since researchers all over the world are concerned about the same problems of
optimizing the rabbit feeding, the joint discussion of research results, especially when the scientists
belong to different scientific schools, opens up new horizons for achieving goals and practical use of
the new knowledge gained.
Keywords
pregnant rabbits, lactating rabbits, complete granular diet, nutrients - energy ratio, restricted feeding, litter size and weight, fecundity.
