title: Effects of gestational maternal undernutrition on growth, carcass composition and meat quality of rabbit offspring.
abstract: An experiment was conducted in order to evaluate the effects of gestational undernutrition of rabbit does on growth, carcass composition and meat quality of the offsprings. Thirty primiparous non lactating rabbit does were artificially inseminated and randomly divided in three treatment groups: Control (C; fed to 100% of maintenance requirements throughout gestation, n = 10), early undernourished (EU; fed to 50% of maintenance requirements during days 7-19 of gestation, n = 10) and late undernourished (LU; fed to 50% of maintenance requirements during days 20-27 of gestation, n = 10). During the 4th week of the gestation period, LU does significantly lost weight compared to C and EU groups (P<0.05). At kindling, C does produced litters with higher proportions of stillborn kits (P<0.05) while the total litter size (alive and stillborn kits) was not different among groups (10.7, 12.8 and 12.7 kits in C, EU and LU groups, respectively). Kit birth weight tended to be lower in the LU group. During fattening, body weight and feed intake were not different among offsprings of the three experimental groups. Moreover, the maternal undernutrition did not have any impact on carcass composition of the offsprings in terms of carcass parts and internal organs weights as well as meat quality of L. lumborum muscle (pH24, colour, water holding capacity and shear values) at slaughter (70 days of age). Therefore, it can be concluded that the gestational undernutrition of the mother does not have detrimental effects on the productive and quality traits of the offsprings.
authors: Department of Physiology, Medical School, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupoli, Greece.
authors: George K
authors: GK
authors: Symeon
authors: Department of Animal Breeding & Husbandry, Faculty of Animal Science and Aquaculture, Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Goliomytis
authors: Department of Animal Breeding & Husbandry, Faculty of Animal Science and Aquaculture, Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors: Iosif
authors: I
authors: Bizelis
authors: Department of Nutritional Physiology and Feeding, Faculty of Animal Science and Aquaculture, Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors: George
authors: G
authors: Papadomichelakis
authors: Department of Physiology, Medical School, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupoli, Greece.
authors: Olga
authors: O
authors: Pagonopoulou
authors: Division of Animal Production, Department of Agricultural Development, Democritus University of Thrace, Nea Orestiada, Greece.
authors: Zafeiris
authors: Z
authors: Abas
authors: Department of Animal Breeding & Husbandry, Faculty of Animal Science and Aquaculture, Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors: Stelios G
authors: SG
authors: Deligeorgis
authors: Department of Anatomy & Physiology of Farm Animals, Faculty of Animal Science and Aquaculture, Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors: Stella E
authors: SE
authors: Chadio
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001823:Body Composition; D001835:Body Weight; D004435:Eating; D005260:Female; D048788:Growth and Development; D044342:Malnutrition; D018811:Maternal Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects; D008460:Meat; D008892:Milk / Q000378:metabolism; D009035:Mothers; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications; D011817:Rabbits