Research Article

Mink fertility of palomino colour type and its crossbreeds with different percentages of standard mink genes

Dorota Kołodziejczyk, Stanisław Socha

1. Acta Sci. Pol. Zootechnica, 11(4), 2012, 53‒60

Abstract. The work presents an analysis of palomino female mink fertility. There were three genetic groups within the palomino colour type: purebred mink (no standard genes), crossbreeds I (palomino with 50% standard genes) and crossbreeds II (palomino with 25% standard genes). The experimental material was obtained at two breeding farms located in northern Poland. An assessment was made of the following reproductive characteristics: number of mink at birth, number of mink reared and gestation length. Values of the aforementioned characteristics were subjected to analysis of variance and significance of differences between selected factors was checked. Female age was the factor which had a highly significant influence on the fertility of mink genetic groups. The highest number of kits per litter was recorded for two-year-old palomino females (5.91 on average) and palomino females with 50% standard genes (6.91, on average). The shortest gestation period was typical of females mated three times for all the mink genetic groups. The average gestation length in this mating system ranged between 46.08 and 48.22 days. Crossbreeding between colour types also had an influence on mink fertility. Female mink from crossbreed group I had the highest average number of kits born and reared (6.38 and 5.76, respectively).

Keywords: colour type, crossing between colour types, fertility, genetic group, mink