A five-year crossbreeding project involving Spanish maternal line called V-line (V) and Saudi Gabali (S) rabbits was carried out to produce 14 genetic groups of V, S, ½V½S, ½S½V, ¾V¼S, ¾S¼V, (½V½S)2, (½S½V)2, (¾V¼S)2, (¾S¼V)2, (¾V¼S)2, (¾S¼V)2, Saudi 2 (synthesized maternal line), and Saudi 3 (synthesized paternal line). A total number of 2770 rabbits fathered by 91 sires and mothered by 402 dams were slaughtered and heritabilities and common litter effects for edible and non-edible carcass traits, lean composition and meat quality were estimated using an animal model. Weights of carcass, offal, meat, and bone of the crossbred rabbits were heavier relative to the average of purebred rabbits. Heritability estimates were mostly moderate and ranging from 0.17 to 0.22 for edible carcass traits, 0.12 to 0.22 for non-edible carcass traits, 0.14 to 0.20 for lean composition traits, and 0.12 to 0.36 for meat quality traits. For common litter effects, the respective estimates were mostly moderate or high and ranging from 0.31 to 0.35,
0.29 to 0.39, 0.15 to 0.29, and 0.17 to 0.23. Superiority rates for synthetic Saudi 2 rabbits were found to be high ranging from 5.7 to 20.5% for slaughter and edible carcass traits, from 13.0 to 22.2% for non-edible carcass traits, 5.1 to 25.7% for tissues compositions, and 0.7 to 28.2% for meat quality traits comparable to purebred Saudi rabbits; the rates for synthetic Saudi 3 rabbits were also high and ranging from
9.4 to 23.0%, 13.2 to 23.1%, 7.4 to 27.1%, and 1.1 to 32.1%, respectively. |
