Sources of shared variability among body shape characters at marketing age in new zealand white and egyptian rabbit breeds

Abstract

Body measurements (body length, thigh circumference, shank length and chest width) of 311 rabbits representing three breeds, New Zealand White (NZW), Red Baladi (RB) and Black Baladi (BB) purebreds were subject to factor analysis. The objectives of this study were (a) to disclose the main sources of shared variability among body shape characters, (b) deduce the factors that describe these traits, (c) quantify the breed differences in size and shape and (d) predict live weight at marketing age from orthogonal body shape characters. Body conformation 'shape' appeared to be controlled by common and unique factors. The communalities ranged from 0.80 for chest width to 0.99 for thigh circumference and uniqueness (special factors) made the balance. Compared with local breeds (RB and BB), NZW had higher communality (proportion of variance for a variable that is shared in common by other variables) for chest width and lower communality for thigh circumference and body length. Our findings indicated that most of the common variability in NZW body dimensions could be accounted for by factors representing general size and chest width. Corresponding factors in RB were general size and shank length and those in BB were general size and thigh circumference. Independent body shape characters derived from factor analysis accounted for 83.4%, 87.9% and 90.8% of the variation in live body weight in New Zealand White, Red Baladi and Black Baladi, respec- tively. New Zealand White rabbits / Egyptian rabbits / body dimensions / multicollinearity / factor analysis / shared variability