Estimation of dominance effects for reproductive, growth and carcass traits of Pannon White rabbits

Abstract

Authors analysed the reproductive, growth and slaughter records of Pannon White rabbits based on records collected between 1992 and 2014. The examined traits were: average daily gain (ADG), thigh muscle volume (TMV) and litter weight at day 21 (LW21). Genetic parameters were estimated using basic and extended (with dominance effects) single trait animal models using the REML procedure. Heritability estimates ranged between low and moderate for all traits (ADG: 0.25-0.3±0.01, TMV: 0.21-0.24±0.02-0.03, LW21: 0.07-0.19±0.01). Random litter effects were moderate for ADG (0.24-0.25±0.01) but were low for TMV (0.09-0.1±0.01-0.03). Magnitude of permanent environmental effects exceeded that of the heritability values for LW21 in most models. Applying the extended complete models dominance effects were low for ADG and TMV (0.03±0.01-0.02) and moderate for LW21 (0.23±0.01). Among the estimated genetic correlation coefficients, the observed negative value between ADG and TMV (-0.31±0.03) and between TMV and LW21 (-0.38±0.13) were unfavourable. Based on the different models the estimated breeding values showed high stability as their rank correlation coefficients were close to unity (0.93-0.99).