Rabbit Study by Sutter Labs

[bunnybunbunb]

I have Donna Williams on my Facebook. She, and some other breeders, were emailed about a rabbit study Eve,an ex-youth rabbit breeder, is doing. They want measurements and to do DNA tests on purebred rabbits of many as breeds as possible.

I emailed them to say I wanted to donate some of my rabbits to the study! I think this is awesome! The study is mainly about how the diffrent breeds of rabbits come to be the sizes they are. I am excited to participate

"Samantha,

I am so happy to hear that you are willing to participate! Participation
is easy. We send a kit for each rabbit participating and only require
that the rabbit be purebred and full grown. The kits include a consent
form, a measurement protocol, a data sheet and other paperwork. We also
send collection materials for cheek and hair samples. We ask for a set of
10 measurements, along with some information about the rabbit and its body
type. Ultimately it takes about 10-15 minutes per rabbit to collect both
the samples and measurements.

Based on this information, how many kits would you like us to send you?
We are looking for samples on all recognized breeds, but prefer those that
are most distantly related when selecting from a large herd.

If you have the time and energy you can measure as many rabbits as you
would like. If you have a number of breeds and a rather large herd, you
can prioritize sample collection based on the age, the breed and the
relatedness of the rabbit. I am really looking for adult animals from a
diverse set of breeds that are as distantly related as possible.

Currently we do not have a mailing address to send the kits to. If you
can provide us with this information in addition to the number of kits you
would like, we will get those out to you as soon as possible!

Thank you so much for your willingness to participate. If you have any
other questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us!

Sincerely,
Eve"

If anyone else wants to join here is the contact information;

Sutter Genetics Lab
Phone: (607) 253-3592
Fax: (607) 253-3497
[email protected]
http://www.vet.cornell.edu/faculty/Sutter/

If anyone else is joining let me know :thumbup:biggrin2:

 

[tonyshuman]

This is really cool and should really open up the doors to let people know more about show rabbit genetics, as well as some genetic diseases.

 

[pamnock]

Bumping this as particpants with "pedigreed" rabbits in the US, UK, and Canada are still needed!

We homeschool, and I've found this to be a great science project for my son . . .

From ARBA site:

[align=center]6/9/2010[/align]
I am trying to collect samples from all 47 breeds of rabbits recognized by ARBA and from rabbit breeds recognized by the British Rabbit Council(Great Britain), and the Dominion Rabbit and Cavy Breeders Association(Canada). Ideally I would have a comparable number of samples that the Sutter Lab has achieved in their other mammal projects, which is over 2,000 samples. My ideal samples will be from full grown rabbits that have at least reached their senior weight, and that are as distantly related as possible in order to achieve greater genetic diversity. Would you provide body measurements from some of your rabbits? We need samples from every rabbit breed. Email or telephone the laboratory to sign up and we’ll send you the measurement kit with an illustrated protocol and tape measure. You can collect the measurements as you have time. We also ask for a small sample of pulled hairs and a cheek cell sample (these are sources of DNA). Please also contact us if you know other breeders or owners who might like to help. We aim to identify the patterns of variation in the rabbit skeleton. We also want to quantify the skeletal patterns we see in different breeds. Long term, we want to find and study the gene sequence changes in the rabbit genome that contribute to body size and skeletal shape differences.

Sutter Genetics Lab
Phone: (607) 253-3592
Fax: (607) 253-3497
[email protected]
http://www.vet.cornell.edu/faculty/Sutter/

 

[missyscove]

I have a friend who worked with Sutter measuring horses last summer for a similar project.
I realize no one else probably notices or cares, but this study is being done by the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), not Cornell College (Mount Vernon, IA).