Repeatability and heritability estimates of five rabbit genotypes at various ages.
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Date
2015
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Nigerian Society for Animal Production
Abstract
This breeding experiment was carried out at the Rabbit Unit, Teaching and Research Farm, Federal
University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) between 2009 and 2010. Data on litter traits such as
individual kit weight (IKW), average litter weight (ALW), litter weight (LTW), litter size (LTZ) of
the animals were collected. Data on the litter traits were taken at birth, 21, 35 and 56 days of age from
13 progenies and 5 parental genotypes. Heritability estimates due to dam ranged from very low value
of 0.00014 (IKTW) at 21 days to a very high value of 0.774 (LTW) at 35 days. Repeatability followed
similar trend but ranged from extremely low value of 0.00004 (IKW) at 21 days to medium value of
0.194 (LTW) at 35 days. The study show that selection could be better made for the traits at 35 days
of age as that would bring improvement for the traits in question. The results also indicated the
superiority of the dam over the sire in selection for improvement of the traits.
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Keywords
Dam, sire, litter, estimates
Citation
Olupitan E.O., Chineke C.A. and Ajao B.H. (2015). Repeatability and heritability estimates of five rabbit genotypes at various ages. Proceeding of the 40th Annual Conference of Nigerian Society for Animal Production, Adeyinka I.A., Kabir M., Abdu S.B., Erakpotobor G.I., Hassan M.R. and Iyiola-Tunji A.O.(eds): 60 - 63.