Breeding for general disease resistance: a selection experiment in rabbits

We performed a selection experiment to investigate the possibility to improve resistance to non-specific diseases in rabbits. The selection criterion was a binary trait (healthy versus sick or dead) obtained from clinical signs of diseases occurring naturally on farm. A herd of 116 to 132 does and 30 bucks was bred based on this selection criterion. The heritability of the trait was 0.035 ± 0.009. After four generations of selection, the genetic progress was 1.5 genetic standard deviation, indicating that breeding for general disease resistance is feasible.