Genetic Survey of the Most Distributed Commercial Rabbits Along The Nile in Egypt: A Case Study by Microsatellite Markers

The investigation of genetic diversity is vital for managing farm animals. Hence, the current study examined the genetic status of the most rabbit lines distributed commercially along 804 km of the surrounding villages on the Nile River. The results of survey showed that the percentages of the Verde line (VL), Hyplus line (HL), Alexandria line (AL), and New Zealand (NWZ) were 79, 70, 64, and 53%, respectively. According to previous result, 338 biological samples from previous lines (86 for VL, 84 for LA, 83 for HL, and 85 for NWZ) were collected from three populations for each rabbit line in Delta (D), Middle Egypt (M), and Upper Egypt (U) to determine the genetic variability using 26 microsatellite markers. According to results of microsatellite loci, the total number of recorded alleles was 166. Among rabbit lines, the mean number of alleles (MNa) was the lowest in NWZ (5.772) while it was highest in AL (7.154). Furthermore, the south populations (U) expressed high values of private alleles (Pa) and all populations (7, 5, 4, and 3 for AL, VL, HL, and NWZ, respectively). It was noticed that observed heterozygosity (Ho)> expected (He) among all lines and populations. The inbreeding coefficient (FIS) recorded the highest value in NWZ (0.178) with bottleneck observation. In contrast, other lines were in negative values. Our findings show that the generated information is relevant for rabbit breeding and could be used as a guide in genetic improvement programs in Egypt.