Copyright © Society of Animal Science, Department of Livestock & Avian Science, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka http://www.wayambajournal.com Wayamba Journal of Animal Science – ISSN: 2012-578X; P955-P962, 2014 First Submitted May 16, 2014; Number 1400256413 STUDY ON THE PRODUCTIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF RABBIT AND THE ECONOMICS OF RABBIT FARMING M. Hasanuzzaman 1 , K. B. Amin 1 , M. Ahaduzzaman, M. Alam 2 1 Department of Animal Science & Nutrition, 2 Department of Medicine and Surgery, Chittagong Veterinary and animal Sciences University, Khulshi- 4225, Chittagong, Bangladesh. A study was conducted to know the growth and reproductive performance of rabbit as well as to assess the cost of rabbit rearing. The study carried out in the Rabbitry Unit of the department of Animal science and Animal Nutrition, CVASU. For this study 12 adult rabbit were selected and fed concentrate mixture containing 2369 Kcal/kg energy and 16.44 % CP and green grasses. All the experimental animals were tried to keep in same management system for the entire period. From this experiment it was observed that the total average dry matter intake of male and female was similar as 119.5 5.05g per day. It was also observed that the daily average body weight gain was lower (13.33 0.07) in female and higher (14.44 0.09 g) in male rabbits, respectively. The reproductive performance in the study includes percent of does kidded, gestation period, litter size, litter weight at birth, average individual kit weight at birth and kit mortality and those were 100%, 31 0.3 days, 3.4 0.45 nos., 240 15.25 g, 70.59 3.3 g and 10.5% respectively. The daily average feed cost for each animal was found as 3.39 Taka. Finally, total profit from rearing of 12 adult rabbits was 7030.6 taka for three months. From this discussion, it can be summarized that, rabbit have great potentiality in growth and reproduction. Rabbit can be reared in least cost and it’s a profitable species. As rabbit farming is easily manageable and sustainable it has a bright future potential in our country as a source of income generation as well as a source of animal protein. Key Words: Rabbit, production, reproduction, animal protein, income Among the countries of Southeast Asia, Bangladesh has a huge potential for development. But various socio-economic reasons hinder its development. About half of the country's populations live below the poverty line with 80% in the rural areas (Mishra and Hossain 2005). Acute crisis of human food particularly animal protein is the major problem of Bangladesh. Here, meat produced by different conventional sources like poultry, cattle, sheep and goat is quite insufficient to meet-up the growing demand of animal protein in spite of high density of livestock due to proper planning. Protein deficiency has been taken as the major contributory factor in malnutrition. Per capita consumption of animal protein in Bangladesh is only 4.57 kg per year whereas the standard requirement is 43.8 kg per year (Begum, 2005). It is therefore, important to explore some alternative sources of animal protein to minimize the deficiency of protein. So, small herbivorous and unconventional species of livestock like “rabbit” would be an integral part of the agricultural farming system that plays a crucial role in nutrition, generation of income and self-employment in Bangladesh (BBS 1998). Rabbit is an important micro livestock may be considered as a promising and potential alternative source of protein in this regard. Rabbit has high demand in Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, USA, Mexico, Russia, France, Spain and some Middle Eastern countries for its value in the context of meat/flesh, fur/wool, and wide use as model animal for different laboratory works. But farming of rabbit as a means of alternative nutritious diet and source of rural family income has not been yet made popular in Bangladesh (Hassan et al. 2012). The socio economic background of our country demands innovative approaches for alleviating rural poverty and it can be done P 955 Copyright © Society of Animal Science, Department of Livestock & Avian Science, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka http://www.wayambajournal.com