caa a22 4500 388061073 CHVBK 20180307125121.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e199802 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S135772980000905X doi S135772980000905X pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S135772980000905X El-Darawany A. A. Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt Premature parturition in commercial strains of rabbits in Egypt [Elektronische Daten] [A. A. El-Darawany] This study was carried out on Bauscat (B), New Zealand (N), Californian (C), N × C (NC) and B × NC (BNC) rabbits. Overall reproductive performance for does with premature parturition (pre-term) of the five breeds was determined and compared with that of does delivering at the normal time (full-term). Full-term does showed a reproductive performance superior to that of pre-term does in all five breeds with larger litter size at weaning, more pups weaned per doe and a lower proportion of stillbirths. Pre-term B, N and BNC does had a larger number of pups weaned than pre-term C and NC does (P < 0·01). There was a high incidence of pup mortality in premature litters, and the main causes of this high mortality were respiratory distress syndrome, crushing of the skull and starvation and chilling. The mean serum oestradiol 17-β concentrations and degrees of cervical mucous ferning in pre-term B does were higher than in full-term does (P < 0·01) but the mean serum progesterone concentrations in pre-term B does were lower than in full-term does during the gestation period (P < 0·01). Treatment with either dexamethasone or progestin reduced pup mortality in pre-term does and the birth-to-remating interval was shorter in pre-term does treated with dexamethasone (P < 0·01) but longer when treated with progestin (P < 0·01). Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1998 parturition nationallicence performance nationallicence perinatal mortality nationallicence prematurity nationallicence rabbits nationallicence reproduction nationallicence steroids nationallicence Animal Science Cambridge University Press 66/1(1998-02), 271-276 1357-7298 66:1<271 1998 66 ASC https://doi.org/10.1017/S135772980000905X text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S135772980000905X text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- El-Darawany A. A. Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Animal Science Cambridge University Press 66/1(1998-02), 271-276 1357-7298 66:1<271 1998 66 ASC CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge