Analysis of Conformation Characters in Chinchillas of Standard and Polish Beige Strains in the Breeding Farm 'Raba' in Myślenice.

The work aimed at the analysis of the influence of colour type on chinchilla utilitarian traits. Research concerns animal size and fur quality traits. The data for the analysis was collected from the breeding farm „ Raba‟ in Myś lenice (southern Poland). The data concerns standard and Polish beige chinchillas and covers 3 years. The analysis included the following factors: year of evaluation, animal sex, colour type and interactions of these factors. The analysis of variance proved statistically significant influence of the year of evaluation, colour type and animal sex on evaluated traits. The year of observation influenced significantly animal weight, fur colour purity, colour type, fur's paunch part and total number of scores. Colour type influenced significantly animal weight and fur colour purity. Animal sex influenced significantly animal weight, animal size, animal build, fur quality, fur colour purity and total number of scores. Arithmetic means of studied traits during 3 years reached various levels, depending on colour type and animal sex; e.g. animal weight (in grams) in chinchilla ranged from about 560 g to 620 g. In what concerns total number of scores (in points), e.g. males of standard colour types were evaluated higher than females of beige colour type, while females of beige colour type obtained higher notes when compared with females of standard colour type. Variability coefficients, depending on traits, varied from 7.15% to 26.17%. It can prove that chinchillas which obtained very high notes in some traits had lower notes in other traits and consequently total number of scores was equalized. Phenotypic correlations were also estimated and ranged from -0.089 to 0.721. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]