Five years crossbreeding experiment was preformed involving two synthetic rabbit lines of APRI (A) and Moshtohor (M) where bucks of APRI line and does of Moshtohor line were used to produce F1 crossbreds (½A½M), followed by inter-se mating to obtain F2 crossbreds (½A½M)2. A total number of 263 sires, 445 dams and 1998 kits were used to estimate heritabilities and predicted breeding values (PBV) for post-weaning body weights (BW) and daily weight gains (DG). The variance components estimated by Gibbs Sampling were used to solve the mixed model equations using the PEST software, getting the solutions for genetic groups' effects along with the solutions for other fixed effects. The crossbreeding effects in terms of direct additive genetic effects (GI), maternal effects (GM), direct heterosis (HI) and maternal heterosis (HM) were obtained according to Dickerson model using the procedure of Generalized Least Squares (GLS). Heritability estimates were low to moderate, ranging from 0.17 to 0.36 for BW and 0.09 to 0.23 for DG. The ratios of common litter effects were low to moderate and ranging from 0.04 to 0.16 for BW and 0.03 to 0.26 for DG. The interse cross (½A½M)2 had the lowest ranges in PBVs for BW and DG relative to the other three genetic groups. The percentages of GI were in favor of M line by 0.2 to 2.3 % for BW and by 0.5 to 3.2 % for DG. Also, the percentages of GM were in favor of M line by 2.1 to 4.6 % for BW and by 1.6 to 9.4 % for DG. The estimates of HI were mostly significantly positive and ranging from 15.1 to 20.9 % for BW and 5.0 to 32.3 % for DG. Also, the estimates of HM were significantly positive by 6.8 to 11.0 % for BW and 0.7 to 18.1 % for DG. In practice, new synthetic rabbit lines could be established in Egypt using the APRI line as a sire-group and the Moshtohor line as a dam-group. |
