Carcass characteristics of Soviet Chinchilla rabbits maintained at sub-temperate climate of Kodai hills

The slaughter study was undertaken on 12 weeks old Soviet Chinchilla rabbits maintained at the sub-temperate climate at Kodai hills to assess their relative carcass characteristics. The pre-slaughter weight, hot carcass weight, reference carcass weight were 1783.33, 1155.17, 844.67 g, respectively and dressing percentage was 61.37. The yield of different offals namely, liver, kidney, heart and head were 61.00, 13.38, 6.82 and 155.92 g respectively. The proximate composition of Longissimus dorsi muscle of Soviet Chinchilla rabbits was 75.56, 1.29, 23.04 and 3.93% for moisture, total ash, protein and ether extract, respectively. The results indicated that the growth performance, carcass yield and dressing percentage were better in Soviet Chinchilla rabbits maintained under sub-temperate region of Kodai hills.