Visual image analysis to estimate morphological and weight measurements in rabbits.

Visual Image Analysis (VIA) has been evaluated to estimate morphological traits and weights of live rabbits and carcasses to improve the body conformation of the new breed Leprino di Viterbo. The reliability of VIA was firstly tested on a sample of 30 does. Then, a total of 365 animal (130 additional does and 205 rabbits at slaughtering weight of kg 2.5) was utilised to calculate some surface traits and correlations between live and carcass weights that were later validated over a new sample of 112 rabbits (37 does and 75 fattened). VIA gave very good results to evaluate morphological and weight measurements. Maximum observed individual difference between data measured by metre and by VIA was only 3.6%. Since standard error (SE) of VIA was lower than SE of metre (0.06 and 0.33 respectively), VIA was considered more reliable than the instrumental measurement. A new parameter, Body Side Surface, was made available by the Image Analysis to estimate Live Weight and Carcass Weight efficiently. Correlations were high (P<0.01) both in does (R2=0.87 for live weight equation) and at slaughter time (R2=0.82 and 0.76 for live and carcass weight equations, respectively). It was concluded that VIA is a viable, quick and practical mean to measure and select for weight and morphological traits as head length, ear length, body length and body side surface.