Data from: Effects of gestational maternal undernutrition on growth, carcass composition and meat quality of rabbit offspring

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.

本实验旨在评估母兔妊娠期营养不足对其子代生长性能、胴体组成及肉品质的影响。选取30只初产非泌乳母兔，经人工授精后随机分为3个处理组：对照组（C：整个妊娠期饲喂维持营养需求的100%，n=10）、早期营养不足组（EU：妊娠第7-19天饲喂维持营养需求的50%，n=10）与晚期营养不足组（LU：妊娠第20-27天饲喂维持营养需求的50%，n=10）。妊娠第4周时，LU组母兔体重较C组与EU组出现显著下降（P<0.05）。分娩时，C组母兔所产仔窝中死胎比例更高（P<0.05），但总产仔数（活仔与死胎合计）组间无显著差异（C、EU、LU组分别为10.7、12.8、12.7只）。LU组仔兔初生重呈现低于其他组的趋势。育肥期间，3组子代的体重与采食量均无显著差异。此外，母体妊娠期营养不足对子代的胴体组成（包括胴体部位与内脏器官重量）以及70日龄屠宰时的腰大肌（L. lumborum muscle）肉品质指标（宰后24小时pH值、色泽、系水力及剪切力）均无显著影响。综上可知，母兔妊娠期营养不足不会对子代的生产性能与肉品质性状产生不利影响。