Abstract

The objective of the study was to assess the pre- and post-slaughter traits of rabbit meat obtained from Burgundy Fawn (BF) rabbits and their crosses with New Zealand White (NZW). The experiment was performed on 52 rabbits (14 BF rabbits, 20 NZW, and 18 crossbred animals) reared until 84 days of age. As regards the traits analysed, it was found that the meat of crossbred rabbits had better slaughter traits than the meat of Burgundy Fawn rabbits on the 7th, 35th, and 42nd day of their breeding and than the meat of two pure breed animals on the 63rd and 84th day of breeding. The cold carcass weight of crosses was 1320 g on average and, thus, significant higher than the weight of two pure breeds. The meat content in carcasses of rabbit crosses was 78 % and it was similar to the meat content in Burgundy Fawn rabbits’ carcasses, however, it was smaller than in the carcasses of New Zealand White rabbits. The cold dressing yield I of crosses was 48.2%; this value was higher that that of New Zealand White rabbits and lower than that of BF rabbits. The active acidity, pH45, of the rabbit meat did not significantly differed, however, the meat of the rabbits in the examined groups differed significantly in its pH24 values.

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