♡ THE VIENNA GENE EXPLAINED ♡ By Monvella Rabbitry♡

I have seen so much confusing & incorrect information passed around about the vienna gene over the past few years that we have been working with it here at Monvella Rabbitry & I'm finally at a point where I'm feeling confident enough within my own experience & understanding to explain things so that others can not only understand how the v gene works too, but also hopefully choose to breed with v gene & keep reccords in a responsible way ♡

This is a very simplified, visual example & explanation of how the v gene specifically works (capital V is used to represent NO vienna & lower case v is used to represent vienna on a written Genotype) This is factual & accurate information that I have researched & cross referenced extensively & also personally observed through breeding vienna over the past years. My goal by sharing this information is to help educate others so that we can all hopefully work together to do the best at improving & preserving the vienna free gene pool for the future of the Australian rabbit fancy.

The BRC standard calls for all recognised colours to be free of inconsistent markings & to have the correct eye colour. The v gene can cause unwanted makings on the coat, discoloured toenails or incorrect eye colour, this is why it's not a desirable gene for a show line to carry v gene UNLESS that line is specifically being bred for Blue eyed whites (BEW)

For 'pretty' pet colours, the v gene can be very desirable. Though it is not ethical to breed animals purely to achieve 'pretty' colours, It is important to strive for improvement, for quality type & for good health & temperament always.

ALL breeders can choose to contribute in a positive way by educating themselves to a point of proper understanding, by keeping accurate, detailed records & pedigrees, by being honest about what they know about their lines genetics & by openly sharing all of this information with anyone else who takes on one of their rabbits for breeding purposes (this is important information to also pass along with the rabbit if they are ever rehomed) regardless of if breeding for show or for pet.

ALL pet Families can contribute to looking after our Aussie bunnies & preserving what’s left of the non vienna gene pool by having them de-sexed & eliminating the risk of any unwanted/unexpected litters.

I used very small writing to be able to fit all of this info on one image, I know. Apologies if you have issues reading it & can't zoom in, I will also attempt to explain this further with photos of our rabbits as colour reference below.

What is a BEW?

Blue eyed white - abbreviation BEW - a rabbit who has 2x copies of the v/vienna gene is genetically & visibly a BEW & will always be 100% white with blue eyes, with the ONLY exception of if the rabbit also carries 2 x copies of the resessive gene c. The only other colour that a BEW can be is 100% white with red/pink eyes, because they will also be REW (IF desired, I can cover c gene in the same way later)

Here is a photo example of the colour BEW - pure white with two blue eyes

BEW is a recognised & showable colour in Australia, however there are other colour genes that should or shouldn't be paired with the v gene to create a QUALITY BEW colour for show.

The Chocolate gene (b) & the sable gene (cchl) both should not exist in a show BEW line as both of these colours can cause a ruby glow to the eye, which can cause an undesirable discolouration to the BEW's blue eye colour.

The Agouti gene (A) & the Black gene (B) are IDEAL to pair with v to achieve a quality BEW colour.

A 'clean' BEW line will be 100% free of unwanted recessives such as b & cchl.

What is a Vienna Carrier?

Vienna carrier - abbreviation vc

Other variations of describing a vc are

vienna marked (VM) - a rabbit with any visible Vienna marking, from as small as a white toe nail, white spot on the coat or blue marking on an eye.

vienna split (VS) - a rabbit who specifically has a white blaze on the face & white shoulder markings that closely resembles the Dutch breeds markings. NOTE - Dutch is a breed of rabbit with very specific markings & is not VC.

Heavy vienna or vienna extreme

(HV & VE) - Both of these are used interchangeably to describe a rabbit who is heavily vienna marked, usually also with two blue eyes.

Any rabbit who carries just 1 copy of the vienna gene (v) is genetically a vienna carrier, regardless of if it is visible to the eye in any way or not.

Here are some photo examples of known vienna carriers (they had a BEW or vc perant) as well as a vienna carrier who has NO visible Vienna markings, next to a non vienna of the same colour (this is an example to show how easily v gene can go undetected & be passed on by accident) I tried to choose photos that could also show a variety of markings & what some people reffer to them as. NOTE - There is no such thing as a vc rabbit being 'more or less vienna' they are all equal genetically as Vv.

All Vienna carriers are genetically Vv & will pass on either their v gene, or their V gene to each of their offspring. ALL kittens who come from a vienna carrier perant must also be considered as a vc, regardless of if you are unsure of which are truely genetically Vv.

If a BEW kitten, or a kit with a vienna marking pops up in a litter by suprise, this means that one of it's perants are a vc. ALL kittens from the pair who produced a vm/BEW must now be recorded as vc, until the vc perant is confirmed by test breeding.

Test breeding to confirm if a rabbit carries the vienna gene on their Genotype requires pairing the rabbit in question to a BEW, if there is a BEW in the litter then this confirms that the perant is vc.

There is no fool-proof way of test breeding to prove that a rabbit ISN'T a vienna carrier, as the v gene can be carried & not inherited by any offspring over multiple test breedings, it is really important to understand this - just because a possible vc rabbit was paired to a bew once or twice for test breeding & didn't produce a bew in those litters, doesn't confirm that they don't carry v gene, it just means that they haven't passed the v gene onto those kits specifically. Sure, this prooves that the rabbit in question is less likely to carry v gene, or at least less likely to be passing the v gene onto it's offspring, but it's unfortunately no guarantee. This is why it is SO important for breeders to keep accurate, honest reccords & updated pedigrees for all of their rabbits. If there is ANY known vienna carrier on a pedigree, then that automatically turns every generation that came after that vienna carrier into a possible vc.

There is no known/proven health or behavioural issues caused by being a vienna carrier/bew that I've been able to find, it's simply a colour gene that can make beautiful bews or vienna patterns.. Or cause decades of hard work on clean colour lines to become undone.

I wanted to keep this simple & easy to understand as possible for everyone so I will leave it at that, I hope that this info helps some people to better understand the way that the vienna gene works & also encourages awareness of the reasons why there is such a 'divide' in the oppinions on the topic of vienna vs no vienna between breeders.

This is also just one example of why it is important for everyone to keep their genetic reccords accurate, updated & complete as possible.

🐰💕💕

-Monvella ♡ 09/11/2022 ♡