Crossbreeding parameters of rabbit motion under open field test conditions

Abstract

The biometric - genetic analyses of movement ability of New Zealand White (NZ) rabbits, Wild (W) rabbits and their reciprocal crosses (NZ x W or W x NZ) in the open field test showed that the mean values of grid crossing of NZ rabbits are in the first five means greater than in W rabbits. Means of grid crossing of reciprocal hybrids have intermediate values. Correlations between subsequent minutes of observations of grid crossing are in the most cases low and non significant. The highly statistical significance between genotypes, time of observations and interaction term genotype x time was caused mainly by the direct genetic effect (4.91) grid crossings, direct maternal effect (3.48) grid crossings and by heterosis (2.63) grid crossings. The hypothesis was confirmed that movement activity in domestic and wild rabbits and their reciprocal crosses has a genetic basis.