title: Fertility of the early postpartum, lactating domestic rabbit.
abstract: Sixty-four crossbred primiparous lactating does each suckling six pups were allocated at random into four groups and were mated on either Day 1, 2, 3, or 4 post partum (where Day 0 = the day of parturition). They were subsequently killed on Day 10 post coitum (where Day 0 = the day of mating) to assess fertility. There were no significant differences between treatment groups in their mating response (97% overall), ovulation response (77% overall), implantation response (83% overall), implantation rate (8.7 overall), or preimplantation mortality rate (24% overall). Ovulation rate was significantly increased in does mated on Days 3 and 4 (13.3 and 13.1, respectively), compared with those mated on Day 1 (10.2, P<0.05) and Day 2 (9.6, P<0.01) post partum. From these results we conclude that fertility is high throughout the early postpartum period in the lactating rabbit.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry Rowett Research Institute Bucksburn, Aberdeen AB2 9SB, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: I C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Lamb
authors.forename: G G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Partridge
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Fuller
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Racey