ENVIRONMENT AND LOCAL RABBIT PRODUCTIVITY

ENVIRONMENT AND LOCAL RABBIT PRODUCTIVITY

I Made Nuriyasa

Faculty of Animal Science, Udayana University

madenuriyasa@unud,ac.id

            Rabbit care is a great opportunity in the nutritional needs of the community because rabbits have several advantages including: (1) producing high-quality meat, (2) can utilize agricultural waste and kitchen waste as feed ingredients, (3) in addition to the main products in the form of meat, byproducts (skin and feathers, head, legs, tail, urine and feces can be used for various purposes (Bivin and King 1995).  Kartadisastra (2011) states that rabbits have calping intervals of 4 - 6 times a year with a number of 4-12 buny per birth. According to Lick and Hung (2008) rabbits have higher efficiency in the use of rations than ruminants such as cows and rabbits can use forage feed which cattle do not like. The USDA (2009) states that rabbit meat contains protein (20.8%) higher than epilepsy (20%), beef (16.3%) and pork (11.9%).

            Rabbits, including homeotherm animals, will always maintain a constant body temperature (a narrow range) even though the environment has changed to a fairly extreme range. As a consequence, rabbit rare in tropical lowland areas will lead to an adaptation process.  Adaptation causes energy for maintenance to increase, thereby reducing the efficiency of ration use. One solution that can minimize the negative influence of temperature factors higher than the optimum temperature requirement is to make a cage by modifying the natural environment conditions of rabbits. Underground shelter cage is a cage with a dirt floor and made a shelter cave, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.  Underground Shelter Cage

Under ground shelter cage is a cage with a ground level as a cage floor which is equipped with a shelter hole (Suc, 1996). Ground floor cages are mostly the choice of small-scale farmers in arid (arid) areas such as the California desert (McNitt et al., 1996). Other types of cages, can use the ground surface as the base of the cage or the ground surface is dug so that it resembles a well known as the tunnel system (Lukefahr and Ruiz-Feria, 2003). Rabbits are non-ruminant herbivores, which means that non-ruminant livestock such as chickens and pigs, but rabbits have features that can digest crude fiber plants. This is because rabbits have large cecum and colon as a place to ferment food from forage (grass and legume), as in Figure 2.

Figure  2.  Rabbit Cecum

Besides this, rabbits also have the ability to do capropagi, which is to eat back the dirty (soft feces). Capropagi activities are carried out at night. In the process of capropagi, proteins, minerals and vitamins that have not been absorbed in the small intestine will be absorbed in the cecum and colon. The capropagic process is carried out by young rabbits starting from 17 days old cattle. Rabbits will learn to lick their own feet in order to get microbes that will remain in the cecum and colon.  Rabbit food should contain balanced energy and protein to support maximum growth. Feed with unbalanced energy and protein content causes low feed efficiency (Xiangmei, 2008). Nuriyasa et al (2015) stated that local rabbits require 2600 kcal / kg metabolic energy and 16% crude protein.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bivin, W.S. and W.W. King.  1995.  Raising Healthy Rabbit.  A. Publication of Christian Veterinary Mission, Washington, USA.

Kartadisatra, H.R. 2011. Superior Rabbit Kanisius Press., Jakarta.

Lick, N.Q. and  D.V. Hung.  2008.  Study and Design the Rabbit Coop Small-Scale Farm in Central of Vietnam.  Departemen of Agriculture Engineering, Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry. Vietnam.

Lukefahr, S.D., and C.A. Ruiz-Feria. 2003. Rabbit Growth Performance in a Subtropical and Semi-arid Environment: Effects of Fur Clipping, Ear Length and Body Temperature.  Depatement of Physiology, University of Tennessee Health  Center 894 Union Avenue, Memphis, TN 38163, USA.

Mount, L. E. 1979.  Adaptation to Thermal Environment, Man and His Productive Animal. Edward Arnold Publishing, London.

Nuriyasa, I.M., I.M. Mastika, G.A.M.K. Dewi. 2015.  Performance of Local Rabbit (Lepus nigricollis) Feed Diets Containing Different Level of Fermented Coffee Pulp. African Journal of Agricultural Research. Vol.10(52): 4820 – 4824.

Suc, Q. N. D.V. Binh,L.T.T. Ha and T.R. Preston.  1996.  Effect of Houshing System (Cage versus Underground Shelter) on Performance of Rabbits on Farm. Finca Ecologica, University of Agriculture and Forestry .http://www.Irrd.org/Irrd8/4/cont 84.htm. Disitir Tanggal 12 Nopember 2019.

USDA. 2009. Rabbit Protein. http://www.mybunnyfarm.com/rabbitprotein/. cited 24 Juli 2018.

Xiangmei, G.  2008.  Rabbit Feed Nutrition Study for Intensive, Large-Scale Meat Rabbit Breeding.  Qingdao Kangda Food Company Limited, China.  http://www.mekarn.org/prorab/guan.htm. Cited 18 Nopember 2010.