Acta Univ. Agric. Silvic. Mendelianae Brun. 2019, 67(5), 1125-1129 | DOI: 10.11118/actaun201967051125

A Selection Index for Improving the Carcass Traits in the Pannon Large Rabbit Breed

Virág Ács1, István Nagy1, Tamás Donkó1,2
1 Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Kaposvár University, Guba S. str. 40., H-7400 Kaposvár, Hungary
2 Medicopus Nonprofit Ltd., Research Department, Guba S. str. 40., H-7400 Kaposvár, Hungary

Loin muscle volume and hind leg muscle volume measured by computer tomography are economically valuable traits in rabbit breeding. Hence, genetic parameters were calculated to these new selection criteria, and a two-trait selection index was created in order to modify the current selection process of the Pannon large rabbit breed. The evaluated animals (n = 312) were randomly selected from 2014 and 2018, and the total number of animals in the pedigree file was 2758. Loin muscle volume (LMV) and hind leg muscle volume (HLV) were analyzed in a two-trait animal model. The estimated heritability for LMV was h2 = 0.4 and h2 = 0.42 for the HLV respectively. The selection index was created with desired gains by improving each trait in the selection criteria with one additive genetic standard deviation and the final index was Z transformed. Correlation coefficients between the index and the examined traits were high, 0.86 for LMV and 0.87 for HLV, thus this method could be announced into the breeding program.

Keywords: rabbit selection, computer tomography, selection index
Grants and funding:

The research was supported by János Bolyai Research Scholarship BO/00871/19 of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The publication was co-financed by the European Union and the European Social Fund EFOP-3.6.1-16-2016-00007.

Received: July 8, 2019; Accepted: August 9, 2019; Published: October 31, 2019  Show citation

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Ács, V., Nagy, I., & Donkó, T. (2019). A Selection Index for Improving the Carcass Traits in the Pannon Large Rabbit Breed. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 67(5), 1125-1129. doi: 10.11118/actaun201967051125
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