Analysis of Czech rabbit genetic resources

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Scientia agriculturae bohemica, 42, 2011 (3): 113–118 113
IntroductIon
Biodiversity is one of the most important factors
of sustainable agriculture. Farm animals which are
used for meat production have been developed on a
relatively narrow base and the genetic management of
genetic resources has been receiving attention recently.
There are several major concerns with regard to the
genetic resources: genetic variation is the prerequisite
for selection of desirable traits, highly differentiated
strains are the basis to develop resource populations in
quantitative trait loci mapping, detection and utiliza-
tion for maker-assisted selection and old native breeds
may be considered as living evidence of achieve-
ments of many generations of breeders (We i g e n d ,
R o m a n o v, 2002). Farm Animal Genetic Resources
are defined as animal species that are used, or may be
used, for the production of food and agriculture. The
Global Databank for Farm Animal Genetic Resources
contained records for 16 mammalian and 14 avian spe-
cies including 6379 breeds (We i g e n d , R o m a n o v ,
2002). Rabbit genetic resources in the Global Databank
consist of 232 rabbit breeds. In rabbit genetic resources,
71.6% of breeds are no records of population and 20.3%
are critically endangered (D u c h e v et al., 2006).
The rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) originates from
Spain. Up to Antiquity and even Middle Age, it was
bred only in Spain and south of France, and we can
consider that its domestication began only at the 18th
century (A r n o l d , 1994). The most important step
of creation of breeds occurred during the first half
of the 20th century. In Europe, more than 60 breeds
were registered by the national associations of rabbit
breeders (B o l e t et al., 1996). The European as-
sociation of rabbit breeders and the FAO (Food and
Agricultural Organization) created a databank more than
150 national breeds from 11 countries. The databank
registered historical, morphological, demographic and
basic zootechnical information. A European program
RESGEN CT 95-060 coordinated by INRA (Institut
national de la recherche agronomique, France), aimed
at a more comprehensive description of these breeds
and at evaluating ten of them at levels of both genetic
diversity and zootechnical characteristics. Results
revealed a large diversity with respect to growth,
carcass and meat quality traits and original features
for some breeds, with potential economic interest
(B o l e t et al., 2000). In the Czech Republic, national
rabbit breeds were registered in the Program of Rabbit
Genetic Resources in 1997. However, there is a lack
of information about the breeds. The first data for the
breeds are oriented mainly on population size develop-
ment (M a r t i n e c et al., 2007; Z i t a et al., 2010).
The aim of the study is to receive the first data of
Czech Rabbit Genetic Resources and to describe an
effective population size, fertility and growth char-
acteristics of seven Czech rabbit breeds included in
the Program of Rabbit Genetic Resources.
MaterIal and Methods
The study of population and reproduction of the
Czech national rabbit breeds was analysed on the base
of the Central Herd Book of rabbits which has been
analysIs of czech rabbIt GenetIc resources*
E. Tůmová, M. Martinec, D. Chodová
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural
Resources, Department of Animal Husbandry, Prague, Czech Republic
The aim of the study was to describe an effective population size, fertility and growth characteristics of Czech rabbit breeds
included in the Program of Rabbit Genetic Resources. In the study, seven Czech original breeds were included, giant breed
Moravian Blue (MB), medium breeds Czech White (CW), Czech Spotted (CS), Czech Solver (CSo), Moravian White of
Brown Eye (MW) and small breeds Czech Black Guard Hair (CB) and Czech Gold (CG). The effective population size of
MB, CW, CS ad CG shows that breeds are not at risk and even though that CSo, MW and CB are endangered, their population

 

the whole experiment and the highest live weight at 91 days was in MB (2948 g) and the lowest in CB (1891 g).
rabbit; breed; effective population size; fertility; growth
* Supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Project No. MSM6046070901 and by the Ministry
of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, Project No. QI101A164.

114 Scientia agriculturae bohemica, 42, 2011 (3): 113–118
registered by Czech Association of Breeders since
2000. Rabbit breeds, which were included into the
study, are in the different breed classification, giant
breed Moravian Blue (MB), medium breeds Czech
White (CW), Czech Spotted (CS), Czech Solver (CSo),
Moravian White of brown eye (MW) and small breeds
Czech Black Guard Hair (CB) and Czech Gold (CG).
Breed characteristics are in Table 1.
Population size and effective population size
Data for survey of population size, the effective
population size were evaluated for a year ranging from
2003 to 2008. In total, details of 6865 rabbit litters
of seven rabbit breeds were included in the study of
population size. The effective population size was
evaluated on a number of rabbits in each breed ac-
cording to the formula of Wright (1931):
Nc = 4(Nm × Nf)/(Nm + Nf)
where:
Nm – number of males
Nf – number of females
Fertility
Fertility analysis was done on characteristics
like number of litters, litter size, number of weaned
kits and number of registered kits. In total, data of
6865 litters, 43580 born kits, 37494 weaned kits in
years 2003 to 2008 were estimated.
Growth characteristics
A feeding experiment with seven rabbit breeds was
carried out from weaning age at 42 days to 91 days of
age. One hundred fifty four weaned rabbits were split
into seven groups according to a breed (22 rabbits in
a group). The rabbits were from fancy breeders and
were placed into commercial cages for two rabbits
with the floor space 0.09 m2 per rabbit. There were
identical conditions for rabbits, a temperature 16°C
and relative humidity 55% were kept for the whole
fattening period. A twelve-hour photoperiod was used.
Water and feed were available ad libitum. Rabbits
were fed on pelleted commercial type diets (18.6%
crude protein, 16.5% crude fibre, 3.69% crude fat). In
the experiment, rabbits were weighed individually in
a week interval. Data of growth were processed by one-
way ANOVA using GLM procedure. The significance
of differences among groups was tested by the Scheffe

Scheme of the experiment
results and dIscussIon
Results of the study show the first information about
situation in rabbit breeds which are in the Program
of Czech Animal Genetic Resources. In addition,
there is the first comparison of growth of these rabbit
breeds in identical conditions. Data of Table 2 give
information about rabbit population and number of
breeders of each breed. In the analysed period, the
highest population size was in MB and MS. In both
breeds population size decreased about 100 rabbits in
the evaluated period. In CS breed, it was connected
with declining of breeders number for 10 breeders.
In MB number of breeders is stabilized on a range of
25–27 breeders. Similar situation was in CW, where
population size and a number of breeders reduced,
however the number of breeders is relatively stabilized
Table 1. Breed characteristics in breeding standards
Parameter Breed
MB CW CS CSo MW CB CG
Invented 1890 1930 1900 1959 1984 1975 1959
Colour of genotype ABCdgh a---- ABCDgKk Abcdg achibCDg achibCDG AbCDGy3
Live weight of adult rabbits (kg) 5.5–6.5 4.0–5.0 3.3–4.0 3.5–4.25 3.3–4.0 2.5–3.25 2.5–3.25
Live weight at 30 days of age (kg) 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.4
Live weight at 60 days of age (kg) 1.5 1.2 0.9 1.1 1.0 0.8 0.9
Live weight at 90 days of age (kg) 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.8 1.4 1.2 1.3
Share of genetic resources
on population size (%) 80 70 50 80 80 90 90
Group Number
of rabbits Body size Breed
122 giant Moravian Blue
222 medium Czech White
322 medium Czech Spotted
422 medium Czech Solver
522 medium Moravian White of Brown Eye
622 small Czech Black Guard Hair
722 small Czech Gold
MB – Moravian Blue; CW – Czech White; CS – Czech Spotted; CSo – Czech Solver; MW – Moravian White of Brown Eye; CB – Czech Black
Guard Hair; CG – Czech Gold

Scientia agriculturae bohemica, 42, 2011 (3): 113–118 115
on the range from 20 to 24 breeders. On the other
hand, population size and the number of breeders are
the highest in these breeds in the group of evaluated
breeds. In other breeds, increasing of population size
and the number of breeders was found out. It is pos-
sible to assume that growth of population of these
breeds is due to a support of the Program of Rabbit
Genetic Resources, which subsidize mainly keeping
of these breeds.
In results of population size, effective population
size (Table 3) is more important parameter because
it has a direct relationship with the rate of inbreed-
ing, fitness and the amount of genetic variation. The
highest Nc value was detected in CS and according to
EAAP (European Association for Animal Production)
categorization (D u c h e v et al., 2006), the breed
is not at risk. Also breeds CW, MB and CG are not
classified as a risk. However, CSo, MW and CB with
lower Nc, are endangered. The smallest population
size is CB. Even though that the effective popula-
tion size index in this breed was 272, the popula-
tion size is still endangered. The effective population
size is not commonly described parameter in rabbits
and livestock. We i g e l (2001) stated that very low
Nc in Holstein cattle 39 and 30 in Jersey cattle may
cause reproduction problems. In rabbits, K e r d i l e s ,
R o c h a m b e a u (2002) reported Nc between 30 and
50 for strain 1077 and from 37 to 62 for strain 2066.
Both strains are genotypes of broiler rabbits in French
Program of Genetic Resources. The low number of Nc
is associated with an increase of inbreeding and large
deterioration of fitness (K e r d i l e s , R o c h a m b e a u ,
2002). N a g y et al. (2010) reported for Pannon White
rabbit in last 16 years that Nc varied from 37.19 to
91.08, depending on the method of estimation and the
estimates stabilized after the year 2002. The Nc did
not depend on the negative inbreeding trends. From
our results, none of the evaluated breeds was criti-
cally endangered according to EAAP classification.
The positive outcome was that in MW, CSo and CB
effective population size index has increased during
the Program of Rabbit Genetic Resources.
Fertility parameters (Table 4) show high significant
effect of genotype on litter size and number of weaned

was in mediate breeds CW (6.83) and CS (6.74) and the
Table 2. Population size and number of breeders
Year Breed
MB CW CS CSo MW CB CG
2003 population 1072 944 1071 242 263 98 411
number of breeders 27 24 46 811 414
2004 population 1080 900 960 239 342 86 374
number of breeders 28 23 45 813 613
2005 population 1074 792 844 340 338 154 455
number of breeders 26 21 38 13 12 819
2006 population 986 915 927 338 383 243 453
number of breeders 25 22 38 11 16 11 22
2007 population 856 908 961 352 376 288 656
number of breeders 25 21 36 12 13 14 22
2008 population 917 786 919 308 340 205 671
number of breeders 27 20 36 13 15 13 30
Table 3. Effective population size
Year Breed
MB CW CS CSo MW CB CG
2003 244 185 465 77 67 25 108
2004 224 181 415 78 89 29 127
2005 230 189 372 94 92 35 149
2006 223 207 377 109 127 66 155
2007 233 206 398 102 107 76 186
2008 236 169 412 117 109 68 205
2003–2008 mean 231.7 186.2 406.5 96.2 98.5 49.8 155
index (%) 92.6 91.4 88.6 151.9 162.7 272.0 189.8
Classification of EAAP not at risk not at risk not at risk endangered endangered endangered not at risk
Legend see Table 1
Legend see Table 1

116 Scientia agriculturae bohemica, 42, 2011 (3): 113–118
lowest in small breeds CG (5.37). These results are in
agreement with findings of L u k e f a h r et al. (1983),
M a c h (1992) or B o l e t et al. (2004), who revealed
that albino breeds have higher fertility in comparison
with other medium breeds. CW was in the past affected
by some albino genotypes including broiler rabbits and
presumably it is the result of the crossing. R o b e r t s ,
L u k e f a h r (1992) or B o l e t et al. (2004) describe
that litter size of medium breeds is between 6 and
7.3 and our results are similar. Generally, fertility of
small breeds is lower and litter size of CB 5.63 and CG
5.37 corresponds with B o l e t et al. (2004) in small
breeds like Himalayan 5.51 or Chinchilla 5.73. On the
other hand, a number of weaned kits is not correlated
with body size. The significantly highest number of

in CG. B o l e t et al. (2004) in a study of fertility of
the European Rabbit Genetic Resources stated that
higher number of weaned kits was in medium size
breeds in comparison with giant or small breeds. The
significantly highest mortality at time to weaning

connected with a genotype of CS where parents are
heterozygots and kits with genotype KK died in the
first several weeks of life. Gene K for English spot
negatively affects coat pigmentation and health status
of rabbits.
Growth of rabbits (Table 5) was highly signifi-

whole experiment. Kits were weaned at the age of
42 days and the significantly lowest live weight was
in small breeds CB and CG. Differences in growth
among breeds continued till the end of the experi-
ment. The significantly highest final live weight was
in the giant breed MB and this live weight was higher
in comparison with growth standard for the breed
(Table 1) and is comparable with broiler rabbits. Very
similar results were recorded for a medium breed CW
and also growth of this breed is similar to growth of
               
et al., 2000). The significantly lowest live weight

other hand, rabbits of these both breeds grew faster
than in standards described in Table 1. Our results agree
with data of B o l e t et al. (2000) in 10 breeds of the
European Rabbit Genetic Resources. In their result the
giant breed Flemish Giant and medium breed Argenté
de Champagne grew faster than broiler rabbit strain
C77. Other medium breeds Belgian Here and Vienna
White breeds exhibited the slowest growth rate. The
small sized breeds Chinchilla, Himalayan and English
had a 25–35% slower growth rate than C77.
conclusIon
Results of the study show the first data of Czech
Rabbit Genetic Resources and it is clear that due to the
support of the Program of Animal Genetic Resources
in endangered breeds, population size increased, which
is important for maintenance of original rabbit breeds
in the Czech Republic. The preliminary data of fertil-
ity and growth revealed that Mb and CW are breeds
which may be a source of traits suitable for meat
Table 4. Fertility
Parameter Breed SEM Significance
MB CW CS CSo MW CB CG
Number of litters 1421 1087 2400 396 566 237 756 – –
Litter size 6.34b6.83a6.74a5.92c5.72c5.63cd 5.37d0.02 0.001
Number of weaned 5.56b6.46a5.19cd 5.37bc 5.22cd 5.38bc 4.95d0.02 0.001
Mortality till weaning (%) 11.72b5.38bc 21.18a8.32cd 8.91bc 4.78e7.91cd 0.02 0.001
a,b,c,d 
Table 5. Growth of rabbits
Live weight (g) Breed SEM Significance
MB CW CS CSo MW CB CG
42 days of age 1016a889ab 750bc 950a873ab 705c751bc 254.01 0.001
49 days of age 1215a1129a969b1244a1094ab 777c963b253.58 0.001
56 days of age 1423a1363a1141b1484a1295ab 874c1140b301.03 0.001
63 days of age 1732a1629a1389b1654a1403b1052c1295b341.65 0.001
70 days of age 2106a1946ab 1630c1868b1622c1279d1488cd 333.71 0.001
77 days of age 2444a2265ab 1878c2129b1868c1554d1711cd 323.87 0.001
84 days of age 2759a2562a2099c2330b2054cd 1757e1880de 315.66 0.001
91 days of age 2948a2747b2240d2453c2210d1891e2004e296.34 0.001
a,b,c,d,e 

Scientia agriculturae bohemica, 42, 2011 (3): 113–118 117
production. On the other hand, there is the need for
further studies of all production characteristics Czech
Rabbit Genetic Resources.
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Received for publication on February 22, 2011
Accepted for publication on March 24, 2011

118 Scientia agriculturae bohemica, 42, 2011 (3): 113–118
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Analýza českých genetických zdrojů králíků
Scientia Agric. Bohem., 42, 2011, 113–118
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