Estimates of genetic parameters and heterosis for birth weight, one-month weight and litter size at birth in five goat breeds

Publication date: Available online 8 March 2019Source: Small Ruminant ResearchAuthor(s): C.A. Meza-Herrera, A. Menendez-Buxadera, J.M. Serradilla, N. Lopez-Villalobos, F. Baena-ManzanoAbstractRecords of birth weight, one-month old weight and litter size at birth, from 19,887 kids were collected from 1979 to 2000 at the National Goat Centre of Tlahualilo, located in northern Mexico. Local goats of a non-defined breed were recurrently crossed with imported sires of Granadina, Nubian, Alpine, Saanen and Toggenburg breeds. After editing, the data comprised of 12,641 kids and a pedigree file of 14,762 animals. Estimates of (co)variance components, heritability and repeatability of the aforementioned traits were obtained using a mixed model that included the fixed effects of sex, litter size, age of the dam at kidding, season-year of kidding, breed group, level of upgrading of the dam and the interaction between the breed of dam and breed of sire, as well as direct genetic, maternal genetic and maternal permanent environment random effects. The Granadina kids had the lowest birth and one-month weights. Estimates of direct heritability of the five breeds ranged from 0.202 to 0.510, 0.036 to 0.414 and 0.034 to 0.154 for birth weight, weight at one month of age and litter size, respectively, with several estimates for LS being non estimable. Maternal heritabilities ranged from 0.154 to 0.278 for birth weight and 0.023 to 0.378 for weight at one month of age. Only two estimates of mate...
Source: Small Ruminant Research - Category: Zoology Source Type: research