Angora rabbit wool production: non-genetic factors affecting quantity and quality of wool

Abstract

A study was made of the wool production of 490 females and 137 males of a strain of French Angora rabbit. The female adults weighed 4107 g and produced 249 g of wool every 14 weeks. Production was low for the first harvest (35 g) which consisted mainly of short wool. It then increased rapidly (203 g for the third harvest). After the third harvest, three-quarters of long wool was also bristly. The length of bristles (102 mm) decreased by 4 mm, and that of downs (62 mm) increased by 3 mm when the harvest number went from two to four. The coefficient of correlation between wool production and live weight was lower than 0-30. Adult females born in autumn produced 16 g more than those born in summer. Wool production was at a maximum during autumn and winter harvests and at a minimum in summer.Winter fleeces had longer bristles and down than summer ones. Males produced well wool than females. When a female dropped a litter, her wool production decreases by proportionately 01 to 0-2. Bristly fleeces were clearly different from woolly fleeces on account of higher weight, homogeneity and compression. Objective criteria to evaluate tautness will have to found. KEYWORDS: rabbits, seasonality, wool production.R-Proportion of total variance explained by the model. '*' Within a column, constants not sharing a common superscript differ significantly (P < 0-05).

Divergent selection for fleece weight in French Angora rabbits: Non-genetic effects, genetic parameters and response to selection

“…Does that had been inseminated artificially without producing a litter had a smaller TFW and WAJ1 than does that had not been inseminated (P b 0.05). The depressive effect of reproduction on live weight and TFW observed in does producing a litter was similar to that found in a previous study (Rochambeau et al, 1991). The difference in wool production between females that had or had not been inseminated can be explained by pseudo pregnancy induced by the hormonal treatment used with artificial insemination.…”

“…Studies were made of the wool production of 669 female Angora rabbits born between 1994 and 2001 under a divergent selection experiment that was initiated in 1994. French Angora bucks are known to produce 20% less wool than does (Rochambeau et al, 1991). Moreover since the Angora doe's capacity to foster appears to be limited, French breeders carry out selection at birth according to sex, so that only newborn does and a few bucks are kept (Rougeot and Thébault, 1983).…”

Characteristics of Angora rabbit fiber using optical fiber diameter analyzer1

“…Quality parameters considered in French Angora wool (Rochambeau et al, 1991) include homogeneity [ratio between the bristly hair weight (a positive characteristic) and total fleece weight; bristly hair is the part of the fleece usually harvested from the back and the sides of the Angora rabbits having a high content of long and coarse fibers; in wooly hair (usually harvested from the breast and the belly), there is a low content of guard hair], compression and resilience (measured on a 10-g sample of Angora wool harvested from the rabbit haunch and submitted under a pressure of 3 kg inside a smooth-walled graduated cylinder of 43 mm in diameter; compression is the height of compressed wool inside the cylinder; resilience is the height of the wool when the pressure is removed), structure (ratio of the down length to the bristle length), and tautness or roughness (assessed subjectively by handling the smoothness of the coat on the sides of the rabbit; this quality is desirable to the French processing industry and is estimated by the breeder on a scale of 1 to 5, which is called a bristle index, resulting from several characteristics including bristle diameter, bristle ratio, and coat structure; cloth woven from wool with a high roughness index has a desirable fluffy appearance).…”

Divergent selection for total fleece weight in Angora rabbits: Correlated responses in wool characteristics

“…Bristly fleeces from Angora rabbits are valued because of their ability to produce a fluffy yarn used for certain luxury knit products. Bristly fleeces compress more and relax less than woolly ones (de Rochambeau et al, 1991).…”