Study of the Effects of Inbreeding, Breed and Gender on Phagocytic Activity of Leucocytes in Rabbits

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of various levels of inbreeding, breed and gender on the phagocytic activity of leucocytes in rabbits. A total of 60 rabbits was used for this purpose (30 ♀ + 30 ♂). They were allotted into groups by breed, gender and inbreeding level as determined by Wright’s method. The phagocytic reaction was determined by Valchanov’s method in which a 24 h microbial suspension of St. aureus strain 209 with a density of 2× 10/cm was used. The phagocytic activity was determined using phagocytosis percentage and phagocytic number. Data were statistically processed using three-factor MANOVA linear additive model with fixed effects. The results showed that the breed (degree of homogeneity and heterogeneity) and the inbreeding level had significant negative effects on phagocytic activity. This correlation was more clearly manifested in purebred California rabbits, whereas the heterogeneous groups presented a locally high phagocytosis activity in most cases, at a level of inbreeding of Fx = 0.25. A clear tendency towards domination of male animals versus female with regard to studied traits was present, although the differences were not significant.