Selected haematological and biochemical indicators in different breeds of rabbits

The aim of the study was to evaluate differences in haematological and biochemical indicators in young rabbits of breeds embedded in the Czech genetic resources. Seven breeds (Moravian Blue, Czech Spotted, Czech Solver, Czech White, Czech Red, Moravian White of Brown Eyes and Czech Black Guard Hairs) represented by six males of each breed were used. Weaned rabbits were fattened under identical conditions till the age of 91 days. Haematological values were measured by using automatic analyzer; biochemical indicators were determined photometrically. From the haematological indicators, mean cell volume was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher in Czech Black Guard Hairs (83.00 fl) and the lowest (73.75 fl) in Czech Red. Significantly higher (P ≤ 0.05) concentration of haemoglobin (143.3 g·l -1 ) was recorded in Czech Spotted; values of 125.6 and 123.4 g·l -1 were found in Czech White and Czech Black Guard Hairs, respectively. From the biochemical indicators, cholesterol and triacylglycerols significantly differed in rabbit breeds. Significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher level of cholesterol (3.16 mmol·l -1 ) was determined in Moravian Blue, decreasing with body size in other breeds. Significant correlations of 0.390 were determined between live weight and serum cholesterol content. Significantly different (P ≤ 0.05) content of triacylglycerols was found in Czech White and Moravian White of Brown Eyes (1.30 vs. 0.75 mmol·l -1 ). Our results showed for the first time haematological and biochemical indicators in rabbits from Czech genetic resources and the results revealed that some of these variables could be affected by the rabbit genotype. Genetic resources, blood, haemoglobin, cholesterol, triacylglycerols, correlations Biochemical and haematological examinations provide valuable information on objective assessment of health status, in order to detect health disorders or for monitoring stress factors already at preclinical stage (Hinton et al. 1982). Changes in physiological biochemical and haematological values can also be used as indicators of welfare in rabbit breeding (Hoy and Verga 2006). Biochemical and haematological values may be influenced by a number of environmental factors, such as feed components and animal management. Differences between rabbit genotypes in biochemical and haematological values were not studied in details with the exception of status in Watanabe heritable hyperlipaemic rabbits (Kondo and Watanabe 1975), and similar model rabbits (Kurosawa et al. 1995). The effect of rabbit genotype on blood picture and serum biochemical indicators were demonstrated in crossbreeds of Californian, Checkered giant and New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits. Crossbred rabbits had significantly higher values of haemoglobin, erythrocyte number and leukocyte number compared to NZW rabbits (Burnett et al. 2006). Similarly, Chineke et al. (2006) described rabbit genotype differences for mean values leukocyte number and haematocrit in hybrids of breeds NZW, Chinchilla and Dutch belted, however, all genotypes used in the study were similar in haemoglobin, erythrocyte number and mean cell volume (MCV). Jurcik et al. (2007) stated significant differences in haemoglobin, total protein and urea content in transgenic rabbits compared with nontransgenic rabbits. The aim of this study was to evaluate differences in haematological and biochemical indicators in young rabbits of different breeds embedded in the Czech genetic resources.