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GENETIC AND PHYSIOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF HYLA RABBITS IN GUINEA SAVANNAH ZONE OF NIGERIA
Abstract:
106 grand-parent Hyla rabbits of New Zealand (NZW) and California (CAW) breeds were imported from France consisting of 22 bucks of 11 NZW line (HYLA.GPC) and 11 CAW line (HYLA.MAX) and 84 does of NZW line (HYLA.NG). They were mated naturally to produce two genetic groups consisting of 205 and 192 kits for Hyla purebred and crossbred respectively. 20 non-descript rabbits consisting of 12 old and 8 grower rabbits were used as control for the physiological evaluation. Adaptability index were found to be proportionately moderate in Hyla New Zealand grand-parent (HNZW), Hyla California grand-parent (HCAW) and old non-descript (OND) (0.37, 0.36 and 0.39) respectively. However values obtained for the F1 progeny lines and grower non-descript were 0.34, 0.33 and 0.35 for Hyla New Zealand (HNP), Hyla New Zealand X Californian (NCP) and grower non-descript (GND). Genetic groups for both grand-parent and its FI progeny rabbits had significant (P < 0.05) influence on body-weights at all ages. Reproductive traits such as litter size at birth (LSB) to litter size at 35 (LS35), litter weight at birth (LWB) to litter weight at 35 (LW35) were significantly (P < 0.05) higher for purebred than the crossbred Hyla rabbits. Individual kit weights were significantly (P < 0.05) higher for crossbred than the purebred rabbits at pre and postweaning ages. Estimates of heritability (0.39 – 1.30), repeatability (0.21 – 0.77), and phenotypic correlations (0.28 – 1.00) were moderate to high, except for genetic correlations (0.09 – 0.87) which were low to high from birth through 35 days for pre weaning kit weights. From the factor analysis, two principal components which accounted for 83.97 % of the total variance were extracted for Hyla purebred and three principal components accounted 89.88 % for Hyla crossbred rabbits. In conclusion, the average performance of the Hyla rabbits was moderate and this implied gradual acclimatization to the tropical environment of Zaria. Heritability and repeatability estimates implied that progress will be faster through individual selection for the pre weaning traits. The adaptability index should be further investigated to include more variables and larger sample size to improve accuracy of the estimates obtained
GENETIC AND PHYSIOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF HYLA RABBITS IN GUINEA SAVANNAH ZONE OF NIGERIA
