Resumen de Diallel crossbreeding experiment in danish and hungarian meat rabbits 2. Quality evaluation, dissection, and chemical analysis of carcasses
J.F. Jensen, J.A. Jensen, Zs. Szendrő, P. Sorensen
The two rabbit meat breeds, Danish White (D), represented by a 3-way cross of 3 lines from the Danish lnstitute of Animal Science (DIAS), and Pannon White (H), represented by a synthetic breed from the Pannon Agricultural University (PAU) were used in a diallel crossing experiment carried out simultaneously at the two locations. In the four combinations: DD, DH, HD, and HH the male breed is mentioned first.Carcass weight averaged 1,650 g for ali carcasses. Body length was longest in (HD) carcasses. The dressing percentage was biggest in group (DH).For fleshiness and confonnation of carcasses, group (HD) got the highest score - 7.50 points. Group (DD) got 7.46 points and the two groups (DH) and (HH) got 7.36 and 7.34 points, respectively. Group (DD) and (HD) got the highest score for leg.At the cutting-up programme, no significant differences in the percentage for forepart were recorded between the four groups. The male carcasses had a significantly higher percentage forepart, 21.5 versus 20.9 for female carcasses. For loin the opposite was found, 35.8% for male and 36.8% for female carcasses, while no significant difference between the sexes was seen for hind part. So, the anatomy of the sexes seems to be different. M.long.dorsi as a percentage of the carcass weight was significantly higher in group (HD) than in the other groups. lt was smallest in group (DD), 10.1%. The groups (HH) and (DH) showed 11.0 and 10.6%.The percentage of fat free meat was significantly larger in the groups (HD) and (DD) than in the groups (DH) and (HH).The content of fat was significantly higher (P<0.001) in female than in male carcasses, 10.10%' and 8.89%, respectively.In the female carcass, there was a highly significant correlation betwem, the judged amount of fat and percentage fat in the analysis, r = 0.54 . In male carcasses the correlation was smaller and not sígnificant, r = 0.12. Between carcass weight and points for fleshiness, the correlation was highly significant, r = 0.64 and 0.63 for males and females, respectively, but between carcass weight and percentage of protein in the carcasses the correlation was negative and non-significant. The visual judgement of fleshiness/confonnation was, in this investigation, much influenced by the weight of the carcass, and only for female carcasses it was related to the fat content of the car-case. Significant differences between groups were found for M.long.dorsi (length as well as relative weight) and for fat free meat, too.
