| This investigation quantified the effects of the naked gene on postweaning and thermotolerance characters in rabbit fryers during 42-d growth phase trials in summer of 2002 in subtropical south Texas. In 1999, a rare naked rabbit was mated to commercial New Zealand White does, which resulted in 16 F 1 litters and 113 offspring, all of which had normal fur coats. To reproduce the recessive naked gene in the homozygous state, F1 x F 1 inter se matings were made between half-siblings to create an F2 generation. Based on the expected 3:1 phenotypic ratio (furred to naked), in the F2 generation, 192 rabbits had normal fur coats and 48 rabbits were naked (chi2 = 2.94; P > 0.05), supporting the single recessive gene hypothesis.; Our results suggest that naked rabbits had better thermoregulation and(or) higher critical body temperature zone than furred rabbits, and hence better growth performance. Although this preliminary experiment yielded promising results in favor of naked rabbits, further research is warranted to confirm our results. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
