M L Garcia

Miguel Hernández University of Elche | UMH · Department Agro-food Technology

The preweaning weight of kits has been related to their mortality during the suckling period. Selecting rabbit kits for individual body weight in the first days of life could be interesting; however, better knowledge of body weight’s heritability during the preweaning period is necessary to determine the opportune moment for selection. A total of 1...

Simple Summary The productivity and survival of females in the rabbit industry depends largely on the correct management of their body reserves. This management includes both their body condition and the mobilization of their body reserves during high energy demand or critical moments for reproduction, such as mating, gestation, or delivery. In thi...

Background Understanding how the host’s microbiome shapes phenotypes and participates in the host response to selection is fundamental for evolutionists and animal and plant breeders. Currently, selection for resilience is considered a critical step in improving the sustainability of livestock systems. Environmental variance ( V E ), the within-ind...

In rabbits, ovulation rate is, together with prenatal survival, one of the main limiting factors for litter size. Both components are affected by several factors related to females and their environment. Thus, understanding these components and their factors of variation is key in designing diets, optimisation of reproductive performance and geneti...

The aim of this study was to analyse the relationships between kit birth weight and litter size with kit survival from birth to weaning, and to estimate the effects of place of birth, nest quality, cannibalism, lactation, parity order, season and sex. A total of 1696 kits from 82 females of the ITLEV2006 synthetic line were used in this study. A lo...

Background Gut metabolites are key actors in host-microbiota crosstalk with effect on health. The study of the gut metabolome is an emerging topic in livestock, which can help understand its effect on key traits such as animal resilience and welfare. Animal resilience has now become a major trait of interest because of the high demand for more sust...

Genetic parameters of kit survival traits and birth weight were estimated on ITELV2006 synthetic line aimed at improving kit survival using a multiple trait linear and threshold model. Data on 1696 kits for survival at birth and at weaning, as well as individual birth weight and litter size were analysed. Genetic effects of kit survival traits and...

Background The gut-derived metabolites are key actors in the host-microbiota crosstalk and can have either beneficial or detrimental effects on the host. Gut metabolome could be a potential strategy to enrich the knowledge of host-gut interactions, providing another way of improving key traits such as animal resilience and welfare in livestock syst...

Background Understanding how the host’s microbiome shapes phenotypes and participates in the host response to selection is fundamental for evolutionists and animal and plant breeders. Currently, selection for resilience is considered a critical step in improving the sustainability of livestock systems. Environmental variance (VE), the within-indivi...

The aim of this study was to estimate the effects of asynchrony between embryo development and uterine environment on embryo survival and subsequent foetal development in rabbits. Embryos at 48 and 72 hours post-coitum (p.c.) were transferred into 22 females at 48 h of pseudopregnancy and into 20 females at 72 h of pseudopregnancy. Similar embryoni...

Selection of functional traits is a challenge for researchers, but an increasingly necessary objective due to the growing concern regarding animal welfare and overcoming the problems of reducing antibiotic use in rabbit production without undermining the animals’ productivity. The aim of this review is to discuss the genetic control of resistance t...

Background: Comparative features of embryos developed under in vitro and in vivo conditions are particularly important in designing embryo transfer procedures that fulfil embryo-recipient synchronization requirements. Objective: To determine the degree of asynchrony in rabbit embryo development between cultured and in vivo embryos. Methods: A tot...

Background Environmental variance (V E ) is partially under genetic control, which means that the V E of individuals that share the same environment can differ because they have different genotypes. Previously, a divergent selection experiment for V E of litter size (LS) during 13 generations in rabbit yielded a successful response and revealed dif...

The aim of this study was to analyse the fatty acid (FA) profile of blood plasma at mating and 72 hpm by gas chromatography. Moreover, the correlation between FA and ovulation rate, normal embryos and compacted morulae was estimated. Palmitic, linoleic, oleic and stearic were the highest FA concentrations at mating and 72 hpm. Most long chain satur...

A divergent selection for litter size residual variability has been carried out in rabbits during 12 generations. Litter size residual variability was estimated as phenotypic variance of litter size within females after correcting for the year-season and the parity-lactation status effects. Stress causes an increase in core body temperature. Infrar...

The purpose of the book is to present in one location a comprehensive overview of the progress of genetics in the rabbit, with a modern vision that integrates genomics to obtain a complete picture of the state of the art and of the applications in this species, defined according to the multiple uses and multi-faceted places that this species has in...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of lactic acid bacteria-based postbiotic supplementation on semen characteristics and hematological and biochemical profiles in rabbits. A total of 28 males were randomly allocated into two groups. Males received a Control diet and Enriched diet supplemented with postbiotic for 15 weeks (4 weeks of a...

p>The aim of this study was to estimate the limiting litter size components in rabbit females from a Synthetic line (n=32) and a Local population (n=34). Ovulation rate, number of implanted and live embryos were counted by laparoscopy at 12 d after mating. Prolificacy (total newborn, number born alive and mortality) and embryonic, foetal and prenat...

This study evaluated the relationship between prenatal characteristics and body condition and endocrine profile. A total of 25 non-lactating multiparous females were used. Body condition, measured as body weight and perirenal fat thickness, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), leptin, progesterone and 17β-estradiol were recorded at mating and 12 d of...

A divergent selection experiment for residual variance of litter size at birth was carried out in rabbits during twelve generations. Residual variance of litter size was estimated as the within-doe variance of litter size after pre-correction for year and season as well as parity and lactation status effects. The aim of this work was to study the c...

Background: Environmental variance (VE) is partly under genetic control and has recently been proposed as a measure of resilience. Unravelling the genetic background of the VE of complex traits could help to improve resilience of livestock and stabilize their production across farming systems. The objective of this study was to identify genes and...

Rabbits are raised for many different purposes, such as breeding stock for meat, wool and fur, as an educational and experimental animal model, and as pets and show animals. However, this species is main used for meat production. France, Italy and Spain have an important role in the increase of world rabbit meat production through the development o...

A divergent selection experiment for environmental variance of litter size variance was carried out in rabbits over thirteen generations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the inflammatory response in the two lines of the experiment, in order to analyse the effect of selection on susceptibility to diseases after challenging to stressful situati...

The objective of this work is the didactic integration of apps that are used in the management of livestock farms in the Degree in Agro-Food and Agro-Environmental Engineering. The academic results indicated that the scores improved by 1.67 points when the apps were included in the teaching. In addition, a questionnaire was carried out for the stud...

The objective of this study was to obtain heritability estimates for reproductive (litter size at birth, number born alive, litter size at weaning) and growth traits (individual weaning weight, individual weight at the end of the fattening period), then determine the genetic correlation between them in a synthetic rabbit line. A total of 805 female...

A divergent selection experiment on environmental sensitivity was performed in rabbits. The aim was to estimate the correlated response in kit weight and survival, litter weight, and weight distance from birth to weaning. The weight distance was calculated as the absolute value of the differences between the individual value and the mean value of i...

A divergent selection experiment on environmental sensitivity was performed in rabbits. The aim of this study was to estimate the correlated response in kits’ weight and its survival, and weight distance from birth to weaning. Weight distance was calculated as the absolute values of the differences between the individual value and the mean value of...

Resilience is the ability of an animal to return soon to its initial productivity after facing diverse environmental challenges. This trait is directly related to animal welfare and it plays a key role in fluctuations of livestock productivity. A divergent selection experiment for environmental variance of litter size has been performed successfull...

Aim: The objective of this work was to study the growth performance, slaughter traits, meat quality, and metabolic profile in rabbits of local Algerian population and a synthetic line. Materials and Methods: In total, 120 weaned rabbits were used (60 per group). Growth traits were recorded from weaning (35 days) to slaughter (91 days). At slaughte...

A divergent selection experiment on litter size variability (high and low lines) was performed in rabbits over seven generations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlated responses to selection in body condition and fat reserves mobilisation. Litter size variability was estimated as phenotypic variance of litter size within female after...

p>A divergent selection experiment for litter size variability was carried out in rabbits. The litter size variability was estimated as the phenotypic variance of litter size within female. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of selecting for litter size variability on early embryonic development and survival after 7 generations of diver...

A divergent selection experiment for the environmental variability of litter size (Ve) over seven generations was carried out in rabbits at the University Miguel Hernández of Elche. The Ve was estimated as the phenotypic variance within the female, after correcting for year-season and parity-lactation status. The aim of this study was to analyse th...

Background In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the genetic determination of environmental variance. In the case of litter size, environmental variance can be related to the capacity of animals to adapt to new environmental conditions, which can improve animal welfare. Results We developed a ten-generation divergent selection...

p>The present work was performed to examine the relationships between measures of body condition and energy mobilization in rabbit does. The variables studied were body weight (BW), perirenal fat thickness (PFT), basal non-esterified fatty acid concentration (NEFA_b) and non-esterified fatty acids after lipolysis stimulation by isoprotere...

High ambient temperatures are a determining factor in the deterioration of embryo quality and survival in mammals. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of heat stress on embryo development, embryonic size and size of the embryonic coats in rabbits. A total of 310 embryos from 33 females in thermal comfort zone and 264 embryos of 28 fema...

p>A higher litter size at birth has been reported in female rabbits from a Synthetic line than in those of the Local Algerian population. The aim of this work was to analyse whether this difference in litter size was due to a higher ovulation rate and/or embryonic survival rate in Synthetic line than in Local Algerian population. In total, 24 multi...

A divergent selection experiment on litter size variability was carried out. Correlated response in early embryo survival, embryonic development, size of embryos, and size of embryonic coats after four generations of selection was estimated. A total of 429 embryos from 51 high-line females and 648 embryos from 80 low-line females were used in the e...

Evolución de la producción lechera en la coneja y su efecto sobre el crecimiento de los gazapos a lo largo de la lactación.

Abstract Text: A divergent selection experiment for residual variance of litter size (Ve) has been carried out in rabbit. Increasing uniformity in litter size along all the reproductive life of females may be partially due to an improvement in immunological response to infectious diseases. After eight generations of selection, the H line exhibite...

Abstract Text: A divergent selection experiment for residual variance of litter size (Ve) has been carried out in rabbits at the University Miguel Hernández of Elche in Spain. The Ve was estimated as the phenotypic variance of litter size (LS) within female after correcting LS for the effects of year-season and lactation status. After seven gener...

Litter size is one of the most important traits in pig and rabbit production. However, selection on litter size has had a lower response than expect ed as a consequence of its low heritability (see reviews by Rothschild and Bidanel, 1998, in pi gs and Baselga et al., 2004, in rabbits). A reduction in the environmental variance of litter s ize w...

Abstract not available.

This study was conducted in a four-year rabbit project that aimed to develop a synthetic line named Moshtohor (M) by crossing Sinai Gabali breed (G) with the Spanish V-line (V). The G, V, F(1) (G x V), F(2) (G x V)(2) and M line were analysed. Traits of doe body weight at delivery (DBW), litter size at birth (LSB) and at weaning (LSW), milk product...

An association study was performed in rabbits between early embryo survival and development, and the nonconservative SNP 12944C>G located in exon 11 and the triallellic microsatellite [(GT)(15)T(G)(5), (GT)(14)T(G)(5), and (GT)(11)T(G)(7))] located in the promoter region of the oviductal glycoprotein 1 (OVGP1) gene. We analyzed an F(2) cross of 2 l...

INTRODUCCIÓN Al contrario que ocurre en otras especies de interés productivo, la coneja no pre-senta ningún tipo de anestro; ni el de lac-tación, ni el del post-parto, ni el estacio-nal. Por tanto, la coneja reproductora tiene que adaptar su producción láctea de acuerdo con las posibilidades reproductivas que presenta. El no presentar anestro de la...

The association of the 2464G > A SNP found in the promoter region of the rabbit progesterone receptor gene with progesterone receptor (PR) expression was evaluated by Western blot analysis. This SNP was associated with 2 lines divergently selected for uterine capacity, the high line selected to increase uterine capacity and the low line selected to...

The objective of this work was to analyze 3 functional candidate genes for reproduction in 2 lines of rabbits divergently selected by uterine capacity. Both lines were selected for 10 generations. The selection was then relaxed until the 17th generation, when it was compounded by 61 and 63 does of the High and Low lines, respectively. We sequenced...

A four-year crossing scheme involving Spanish V line (V) and Egyptian Baladi Red (B) rabbits was carried out to produce five genetic groups: V, B, 1/2B1/2V(F1), (1/2B1/2V)2(F2), and ((1/2B1/2V)2)2. The last genetic group was considered a new line, named APRI. Body weights (BW) and daily gains in weight (DG) from four to twelve weeks were evaluated...

The objective of this work was to study the effect of the oviductal glycoprotein 1 (OVGP1) genotype and mRNA expression on litter size and other fertility measures, as OVGP1 has positive effects on fertilization and early embryo development. We have analysed an F(2) cross of two lines of rabbits divergently selected for uterine capacity. The OVGP1...

INTRODUCCIÓN El aumento de la homogeneidad en el tamaño de camada tiene un doble interés en especies ganaderas como el porcino y el conejo; puesto que por un lado se reduciría el número de adopciones, facilitando el manejo diario al ganadero con la consiguiente reducción de costes en la explotación, y por otro lado se podría aumentar la heredabilid...

A five-years crossing scheme involving the Spanish V line (V) and Saudi Gabali (S) rabbits was practiced to produce 14 genetic groups: V, S, 1/2V1/2S, 1/2S1/2V, 3/4V1/4S, 3/4S1/4V, (1/2V1/2S)2, (1/2S1/2V)2, (3/4V1/4S)2, (3/4S1/4V)2, ((3/4V1/4S)2)2, ((3/4S1/4V)2)2, Saudi 2 (a new synthetic line) and Saudi 3 (another new synthetic line). A total of 3...

A total of 598 F2 does from a cross between the high and low lines selected divergently for uterine capacity during 10 generations were used in a candidate gene analysis. The presence of major genes affecting the number of implanted embryos and uterine capacity has been suggested in lines divergently selected for uterine capacity. Uterine capacity...

Four-years crossing scheme involving Spanish V-line (V) and Egyptian Baladi Red (B) rabbits was practiced to produce five genetic groups of V, B, ½B½V, (½B½V) 2 , and ((½B½V) 2) 2 . A new line with a genetic structure of ((½B½V) 2) 2 was synthesized and named APRI. A total of 2834 litters produced from 848 does pedigreed by 477 dams and 272 sires w...

Data from a single generation divergent selection experiment for the phenotypic variance of litter size in rabbits were analysed to estimate genetic parameters on the environmental variance of litter size using a model which postulates that environmental variance is partly under genetic control. Selection was based on the phenotypic variance of lit...

A divergent selection experiment on phenotypic variance of litter size was carried out in rabbits. Selection was based on phenotypic variance of litter size for each doe after correcting litter size for the fixed effects of year-season and lactation status (PVc). Selection pressure on does was approximately 30% in each line. Males were chosen withi...

An evaluation for five-year crossbreeding project was performed for pre-slaughter weight (PSW), weights of hot carcass (HCW) and offal (OW) as edible carcass, dressing percentages (DP), weights of head (HW), fur (FURW), lung (LW) and viscera (VW) as non-edible carcass traits, weights of meat (MW), bone (BW) and fat (FW) as tissues composition and p...

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) 2 , ((¾S¼V) 2) 2 , Saudi 2 (synthetic maternal line), and Saudi 3 (synthetic paternal line). A total num...

A selection programme for meat rabbits is being carried out in three Egyptian and one Saudi Arabian research centres, each of them having the task to develop lines of rabbits in their local conditions. This is the largest programme executed in countries of hot climate with comprehensive efforts to develop new lines of meat rabbits, where heat stres...

This study was carried out within a four years project that aimed to develop a synthetic line (M) between the Sinai Gabali breed (G) and the V-line (V). Data of 6278 young rabbits sired by 242 sires and dam reared by 540 dams coming from six genetic groups of rabbits (G and V purebreds and their crosses, F1, F2, F3 and M line) were used. Body weigh...

Two parallel schemes of crosses were practised involving the Spanish maternal line called V-line (V) and Saudi Gabali (S) rabbits. The first scheme began by crossing Saudi Gabali bucks with V-line does to get the F1 cross (½S½V), then does of this F1 were backcrossed with bucks of V-line to get ¾V¼S, then the progenies of the backcross were inter s...

Variance components were estimated in 3 lines of rabbits selected for litter size at weaning (A, Prat, and V) to test one of the assumptions of the models used for selection: that litter size data at different parities are repeated measurements of the same trait. Multiple-trait analyses were performed for the total number of kits born (TB), the num...

-A programme of selection for meat rabbits was carried out in Egypt and Saudi Arabia where three Egyptian and one Saudi Arabian research centres are involved, each of them having the task to develop two lines of rabbits. The set of lines in the programme are a control V line, four replicated Spanish V line and three synthetics between the V line an...