Abstract

This study was conducted in order to estimate the impact of using honey in drinking water, drinking cool water and Levamisole injection as alleviated tools of heat stress on White New Zealand rabbits under Egyptian summer conditions. 40 sexually mature White New Zealand rabbits contained 36 does with an average age of 15-20 (18±2) weeks and nearly similar body weight of 2 kg and 4 fertile bucks with an average age of 24 weeks and average weight of 2.5 kg were used in this experiment. They were allocated into four groups each containing 9 does and 1 buck. Group I was kept as a control without any treatment, group II received honey 20 ml/l on drinking water, group III drank cold water with a temperature ranged from 16-20 0C and group IV received a single dose of subcutaneous Levamisole injection (2 mg/kg BW). Results showed that most of performance, reproductive and physiological parameters of examined rabbits were significantly decreased by heat stress under Egyptian summer conditions. However, treated groups showed improved traits on most examined parameters comparing with control group. Among the treated groups, the one treated with honey expressed significant increase (P<0.05) in body weight, body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, water consumption, conception rate, litter size and weight, milk yield, economic efficiency, rectal temperature, hematological parameters and some serum biochemical parameters. On the other hand, the group which received cool water showed the best records for decreased levels of serum urea, creatine and respiratory rate. In conclusion, it is clear that heat stress has negative effects on reproductive and physiological traits of growing rabbits with drawing attention toward the importance of using alleviating methods for mitigating the negative effects of heat stress especially by using honey and drinking cool water.

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