A Romanian geneticist from Cluj created the Romanian rabbit breed, respectively The Transylvania Giant, which is now on the verge of homologation.
The Romanian geneticist and lector at The University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Valentin Petrescu-Mag, wanted to create the first local rabbit breed and managed to acclimate it. As a child he was fascinated by the rabbits his uncle bred in his yard, but when he grew up he began his research on ornamental fish. Because he realized that they cannot be capitalized in our country, he returned to his first love, rabbits.
“Rabbits have a very interesting chromatic and from one pair, a white one and a black one, we can obtain 101 combinations and coloring. Being a passionate for genetics it seemed very interesting to me to distinguish the way of perpetuating the color and genes. That, and the fact that Romania has never had its own breed made me create The Transylvania Giant”, said the Romanian lector.
Transylvania Giant was obtained by mating Romanian rustic rabbit, an uncertified breed, but adaptable to weather conditions and food in our country, with Grey Giant, a large breed, in great request for his size, but low on productivity. He obtained the color by cross-breeding with Californian rabbit, a middle-sized, white breed with black extremities, respectively nose, paws and ears. Transylvania Giant is not only big and beautiful, but has also the qualities necessary for slaughter rabbits.
Giant breed of Transylvania, created by Valentin Petrescu-Mag has its place in The European Catalogue of rabbit breeds and has won numerous competitions, including an European championship title in European Master in Leipzig, 2012. The approval of a breed has an economic purpose as industrialization can’t be made without the homologation of breeds. The Romanian geneticist hopes to succeed in the near future in approving the breed he created in Cluj.