ASSESSMENT OF GROWTH AND REPRODUCTIVE TRAITS IN DIALLEL CROSSING OF THREE RABBIT BREEDS

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorKABIR, Mohammed
dc.date.accessioned2021-08-20T08:18:25Z
dc.date.available2021-08-20T08:18:25Z
dc.date.issued2010-08
dc.descriptionA DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ANIMAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL SCIENCE FACULTY OF MEDINE AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY ZARIA, NIGERIAen_US
dc.description.abstractA study was conducted to assess the growth and reproductive performance of three breeds of rabbit in a full diallel crossing scheme. Data generated from 162 purebred kits born in 36 litters and 408 crossbred kits from 72 litters were used. The purebred kits comprised 38 Chinchilla (CHC), 54 New Zealand White (NZW) and 70 California White (CAW) kits. The crossbred groups comprised 217 „main cross‟ kits and 191 „reciprocal cross‟ kits. Birth and weaning traits considered included gestation length, litter size at birth and weaning, litter weight at birth and weaning, preweaning mortality and weaning sex ratio while growth traits included weekly body weight (BW) and body linear measurements: ear length (EL), body length (BL), nose to shoulder (NTS), shoulder to tail-drop (STT), heart girth (HG), tail length (TL), length of front leg (LFL) and length of back leg (LBL). Results of litter size at birth for CHC, NZW and CAW breeds were 6.05, 6.89 and 7.33, respectively. The litter sizes at 21 and 35 days of age were 4.61, 5.5 and 5.94, and 4.58, 5.39 and 5.86 for CHC, NZW and CAW breeds, respectively. Results for Litter weight for CHC, NZW and CAW breeds were 163.68g, 149.25g and 155.94g at birth, 952.13g, 1041.02g and 1067.29g at 21 days of age and 1596.93g, 1764.05g and 1838.40g at 35 days of age, respectively. The respective birth weights for individual kits for CHC, NZW and CAW breeds were 27.05g, 21.66g and 21.27g while the values at 21 and 35 days of age were 206.53g, 189.27g and 179.68g, and 348.67g, 327.28g and 313.72g for CHC, NZW and CAW breeds, respectively. The above results revealed that the CHC breed produced kits that were individually heavier at birth and at weaning than the kits from NZW and CAW breeds. The relatively high performing ability of the CHC breed was confirmed by the results of the general combining ability (GCA) on growth traits which indicated that CHC breed showed significantly (P<0.05) high superiority over NZW and CAW breeds for 8 traits (BW, EL, BL, TL, NTS, STT, LFL and LBL). Nevertheless, heritability estimates for litter size from birth to weaning were high (0.49–0.64) in the CHC breed, while the estimates for litter weight were moderate to high (0.34–0.52). In the NZW and CAW breeds moderate to high estimates of heritability for litter size and litter weight (0.33–0.46 and 0.28–0.41, and 0.31–0.42 and 0.32–0.41, respectively) were observed from birth to weaning. In the crosses however, the results of specific combining ability (SCA) indicated that the CHC x NZW cross was the best combination regarding the use of sire and dam breed to exploit non-additive genetic variance in 6 of the 9 examined body measurement traits. It was observed also that the CHC breed performed generally well in crosses with either NZW or CAW. Cross performance was however low for NZW x CAW cross, implying poor manifestation of non-additive gene action. Moderate to high coefficients of genetic correlation in the CHC breed for growth traits (0.43±0.03–0.88±0.24; 0.27±0.04– 0.85±0.15; 0.20±0.02–0.83±0.14) at 6, 8 and 10 weeks of age respectively, were observed. Positive and significantly high association for HG, BL, NTS, STT and BW indicated that absolute height and frame size were complementary. Beside, selection for increased measurement for any trait and in any of the breeds studied herein, would mean positive and significant influence on the others and therefore, increased skeletal stature with concormitant increase in other absolute body measurements. It was concluded that rabbit farmers in the Guinea Savannah zone of Nigeria would operate more profitably if they keep Chinchilla does with optimal feeding levels especially after weaning so as to attain faster growth and market weight. The progeny from CHC x NZW combination proved the best among the crossbreds, probably due to high exploitation of heterosis from both parentsen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/12520
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subjectASSESSMENT,en_US
dc.subjectGROWTH,en_US
dc.subjectREPRODUCTIVE TRAITS,en_US
dc.subjectDIALLEL CROSSING,en_US
dc.subjectTHREE RABBIT BREEDS.en_US
dc.titleASSESSMENT OF GROWTH AND REPRODUCTIVE TRAITS IN DIALLEL CROSSING OF THREE RABBIT BREEDSen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
ASSESSMENT OF GROWTH AND REPRODUCTIVE .pdf
Size:
734.03 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.62 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
VETERINARY MEDICINE