Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary Science, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030, India.
1Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad.
Data on body weight, body height chest girth, paunch girth, ear length and ear width at 4 and 16 weeks of age of 514 bunnies belonging to New Zealand White (NZW), Grey Giant (GG), Soviet Chinchilla (SC), Remish Giant (FG) and their crosses (F1) were analyzed. Season of birth, litter size at birth and genetic group of bunny significantly influenced all the traits, while sex of bunny had no significant effect. Effects of general combining ability (g.c.a.) and specific combining ability (s.c.a.) were sigtnificant (P<0.01) for all the traits, except for the paunch girth and ear length. The g.c.a. effects were high in FG breed. Estimates of heterosis were negative for body height, chest girth, ear length and ear width. Step down multiple regression revealed that body weight at 16 weeks of age could be predicted reasonably, based on the length and width of earflaps in GG, SC and FG purebreds.
