1-Definition and choice of selection criteria

There are four different grades of angora rabbit fibres in Finland:

• grade 1: length > 6 cm, clear, untangled (loose). The fibre is from females, older than 8 months and younger than 4 years, and from males, older than 8 months and younger than 3 years.
• grade 2: length < 6 cm but > 3 cm, clear, untangled The fibre is from females and males in breeding, males older than 3 years and females older than 4 years. The fleece is from the second shearing.
• grade 3: length < 3 cm, clear, softly matted The fibre is from the first shearing fleece
• grade 4: The fibre is dirty, tangled and contaminated with vegetable matter.

2-Measurement of fleece characteristics :

objective and non-objective measurement of fibre quality

1-Fibre: The fineness (SFS 4463) and the length (SFS 5017) of fibre are measured. This is done by the Technical Research Centre of Finland (TRC), Tampere The bristle percentage is measured microscopically.

2-Fleece and product: The non-objective measurement is done by the feeling of softness on the humans skin (touch). All objective measurements (standing long wearing in the final product, standing capacity of scouring and felting ability), are done by TRC, Tampere.

3-Management of the collected data within a breed database

There is an ACCESS program for the data collection and management in the Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Institute of Animal Production.

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