Desempenho produtivo de coelhos puros ou mestiços durante o período de crescimento.

Little emphasis has been placed on the use of crossbred animals in rabbit farming. According to the available literature, it was found that few studies have evaluated the productive performance of such animals. Thus, this completion of course work aims to study and measure the productive performance of purebred and crossbred rabbits, from the genetic groups New Zeland White and Botucatu, during the growth period. For such, were used a total of 192 rabbits, divided into 24 experimental units. The animals were distributed in cages of size 100 x 70 x 50 cm (length, width and height, respectively), enriched, according to their genetic group, with eight rabbits per experimental plot. The rabbits were divided into two blocks, from first of primiparous rabbits and the second from multiparous rabbits. In each cage, data on initial weight, weight at 67 days, daily feed intake (DFI), daily weight gain (DWG) and feed conversion (FC) were collected, considering the period from 32 to 67 days of age. In general, the results showed that the Botucatu and crossbred genetic groups stood out in weight gain at 67 days of age. It was also found that these animals showed a moderate advantage for DWG 32-67. Even so, there were no significant differences for feed consumption 32-67 and FC for three genetic groups, despite of the data showing better feed conversion for Botucatu rabbits. Therefore, the use of crossbreed and Botucatu rabbits is the most suitable for Brasilian rabbit farms, although further study of these animals is still needed.