PRODUCTIVITY OF DOES AND PHYSIOLOGICAL ST ATUS

Productivity of does and physiological status. Data for 34 769 litters from 5 830 dams, 19 373 from suckling does and 15 396 from non-suckli ng does have been analyzed. The does belonged to A1077, A9077, A2066, A3088 and A4089 strains selected by INRA since 1976. We have studied t he effect of the physiological status of a doe at the time of mating o n litter sizes and weights of the litter or the young rabbits at weani ng. The physiological status combines the number of young and the suck ling status. All the does experienced natural mating to which they wer e receptive. The strain influenced all traits and interacted with phys iological status. The physiological status influenced all traits but w as more an effect of number of young than an effect of suckling status . On going from the first to the second litter the total number of bir ths increased to 0.65 kids, the number of kids born alive increased to 0.79, the number of kids weaned increased to 0.79, the total litter w eight increased to 577 g and the individual weight at weaning increase d to 33 g. The differences between later litters were not significant When the number of young was fixed, a difference of 0.4 kids was obser ved for non-suckling dams over suckling dams. The total weight at wean ing was not influenced by physiological status. The mean weight at wea ning in suckling darns was higher than that of non-suckling dams. The effect of physiological status remains unclear and it is not possible to correct data for a physiological status effect unless this effect i s included in the variance analysis model.