Poultry Production Dept.

Aim: Basic objective of this research was to compare two rabbit lines: V-line (exotic line), Alexandria (local synthetic line) for yield and composition of milk product and their effect on productive performance of rabbits. Materials and Methods: The experiment was conducted on 80 does and their kits. Milk yield (MY) of each doe and milk composition (MC) were recorded at 3 rd week of lactation. Results: The results of MY showed insignificant difference between V-line and Alexandria line. While the results of MC indicated significant differences in milk protein and fat between the two lines. The protein electrophoresis was used for assaying variation in milk proteins between the two lines. The banding protein patterns showed seven protein bands for Alexandria line and six bands for V line. The results demonstrated one specific protein marker at 48 KDa (κ-casein) in Alexandria doe's milk. Moreover, the results of individual body weight at weaning age indicated that Alexandria rabbits had significantly higher body weight compared with V-line rabbits (845.33 g, 664.05 g, respectively). Alexandria line had significantly lower mortality rate compared with V-line (1.5%, 2.7%, respectively). Conclusion: The differences which obtained in Alexandria line milk may play an important role in the productive performance of rabbits.

Molecular markers including random amplified polymorphism DNA (RAPD) and simple sequence repeats (SSR) fingerprints represent reliable tools which may have a great impact in chickens breeding programs and genetic improvement. Twenty primers (10 RAPD and 10 SSR) were examined to study the genetic variation among four Egyptian chicken strains (Fayoumi, Alexandria, Matrouh and Golden-Montazah); Eight RAPD primers were screened and yielded distinct polymorphic RAPD profiles at MW ranged from 600 to 1800 bp with a total of 86 of polymorphic band patterns and nine monomorphic band patterns. The primers also detected 2, 4 and 2 unique bands specific for Fayoumi, Alexandria and Golden-Montaza strain respectively. While six SSR primers detected specific markers at MW ranged from 850 to 1750 bp, these markers were generated from primers (2, 3, 7, 8, 9 and 10). A total of 62 alleles were found across 10 loci, with overall mean number of alleles per locus of 6.2. Polymorphism results demonstrate the efficiency of the studied primers to assess the genetic specificity and analysis the genetic diversity among strains. Phylogenetic analysis using Nei and Li method generally produced two clusters which were completely distinguished based on the locality of the chicken strains. [El-Sabrout K., Khalil M.H., Shebl M.K. Analysis of Genetic Diversity among Different Egyptian Chicken Strains Using RAPD and SSR Markers. J Am Sci 2015;11(8):92-96]. (ISSN: 1545-1003).

Aim: In this study, we examined parts of six growth genes (growth hormone [GH], melanocortin 4 receptor [MC4R], growth hormone receptor [GHR], phosphorglycerate mutase [PGAM], myostatin [MSTN], and fibroblast growth factor [FGF]) as specific primers for two rabbit lines (V-line, Alexandria) using nucleotide sequence analysis, to investigate association between detecting single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of these genes and body weight (BW) at market. Materials and Methods: Each line kits were grouped into high and low weight rabbits to identify DNA markers useful for association studies with high BW. DNA from blood samples of each group was extracted to amplify the six growth genes. SNP technique was used to study the associate polymorphism in the six growth genes and marketing BW (at 63 days) in the two rabbit lines. The purified polymerase chain reaction products were sequenced in those had the highest and lowest BW in each line. Results: Alignment of sequence data from each group revealed the following SNPs: At nucleotide 23 (A-C) and nucleotide 35 (T-G) in MC4R gene (sense mutation) of Alexandria and V-line high BW. Furthermore, we detected the following SNPs variation between the two lines: A SNP (T-C) at nucleotide 27 was identified by MC4R gene (sense mutation) and another one (A-C) at nucleotide 14 was identified by GHR gene (nonsense mutation) of Alexandria line. The results of individual BW at market (63 days) indicated that Alexandria rabbits had significantly higher BW compared with V-line rabbits. MC4R polymorphism showed significant association with high BW in rabbits. Conclusion: The results of polymorphism demonstrate the possibility to detect an association between BW in rabbits and the efficiency of the used primers to predict through the genetic specificity using the SNP of MC4R.

Alexandria line is a synthetic paternal rabbit line which was established and progressing at the nucleus breeding rabbit unit of the Poultry Research Center, Egypt. Molecular genetic characterization of rabbit's lines is a prerequisite towards effective utilization of selection and breeding program. Ten RAPD and SSR primers were used in this study to characterize Alexandria line. A total of 143 bands were detected. Non-specific RAPD markers were detected at MW ranged from 400 to 1800 bp, these markers were generated from primers (1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 10). While specific SSR markers were detected at MW ranged from 550 to 950 bp, these markers were generated from primers (1, 2, 6, and 8). Molecular markers including RAPD and SSR fingerprints represent reliable tools which may have a great impact in rabbit breeding programs and genetic improvement of rabbits.

This study was conducted to evaluate the growth performance of three strains of pigeons (the Local Egyptian pigeon, the Zagel pigeon, and the White Myrthes pigeon. A total number of 475 birds from the three strains were used to study live body weight at hatch, 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks of age, and at sexual maturity, as well as growth rate between 0-1, 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, and 0-4 weeks of age. The results of body weight showed that Zagel and White Myrthes pigeons are superior to Local Egyptian pigeon in hatch weight and body weight at 7 days old then White Myrthes became the heaviest in later ages, while Local Egyptian pigeons was the lightest in all ages. Growth rate recorded the highest values in the first week of age (162-163 g) then decreased gradually to reach the minimum rate between 21 to 28 days old. White Myrthes has significantly faster growth during the whole period of study from hatch to 4 weeks of age (TGR). Estimates of heritability for body weights and growth rate showed moderate heritability expect for growth rate in the third week of age. The estimates ranged from 0.21 to 0.28 and from 0.09 to 0.28, for body weight and growth rate, respectively. Phenotypic correlations among body weight traits and growth rate traits were mostly high and positive which ranged between 0.63 to 0.82 and 0.12 to 0.77, respectively. Genetic correlation between the same traits were positive and ranged between 0.70 to 0.96 for body weight and 0.20 to 0.88 for growth rate. From the current results, White Myrthes strain was superior in most of the studied traits which give the possibility to involve it in future genetic programs for improving pigeon growth traits.