ESTIMATING THE BREEDING VALUE OF RABBITS POLTAVSKA SILVER BREED BY BLUP METHOD

Abstract

A comprehensive assessment of breeding value of the Poltavska Silver
rabbits breedhas carried out using by the method of Best Unbiased Linear
Prediction (BLUP).The following factors were included in the BLUP model:
average daily gains in live weight of offspring obtained from a tested male in the
period 45–90 days, feed costs per unit gain offspring’s obtained from a tested
males in a period of 45–90 days, average weight of a pair of young carcasses
obtained from tested male at the age of 90 days, fertility and survival of rabbits
(daughters), randomized factor of year(three levels) and season of the year (four
levels).The model also has included polymorphic variants of rabbits myostatin
gene and progesterone receptor (three levels).
It was established that the highest value of the breeding value had the males
Snow, Long and Fox, whose BLUP indices were 4.1; 7.3 and 0.9 times higher than
the average value.At the same time, the highest values of the breeding value in
terms of the reproductive qualities of the daughters had the following males:
Snezhok, Long, Bach and Fox (4.5, 2.8, 1.5 times higher than the average
value).Based on the values of RBV index (Relative Breeding Value), Poltavska
Silver rabbits were assigned the following categories: Snow, Long and Butch were
assigned to male improvers, Fox, Cooper - to neutral males, and Dexter, Mini - to
aggravators. Correlation analysis has carried out, calculated among the
PoltavskaSilver breed rabbits between the BLUP indices, the selection-genetic
index and the phenotypic indices of their daughters.There was a high and in many
cases was reliable correlation between these indicators (r = 0.71 – 0.82).These
researches make it possible to carry out highly accurate selection and breeding
evaluation in rabbits, breeding with the aim of identifying true genetic potential of
animals and predicting the productive qualities of their offsprings.