Genetic Evaluation and BLUP Estimates for Growth – Related Traits in Native Iraqi Goats

• Inam Abdelwahed Nayyef

  Author

A recent study was conducted on 125 records from 19 sires and 53 dams of local goat at the Ruminant Research Station in Abu-Ghraib  and utilized breeding and weight records to estimate breeding values using Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUP) method of dam weight , birth weight and body condition score (BCS) also evaluate  heritability and repeatability for the same traits by using SAS programe  furthermore, BCS was  measured based on weight records also  body condition status of dams . Means for dam weight , birth weight and BCS were 38.17 kg , 2.67 kg and 1.82, respectively. Heritability estimates   were  0.22 , 0.36 and 0.43, respectively . Repeatability were 0.34 and 0.51 for dam weight and BCS respectively. For sires, the highest BLUP values for dam weight was 4.416 kg for sire No. 64394  while the lowest – 4.978 kg for sire 64398. Sire No. 182 had the  highest BLUP value of 1.327 kg  whilst the  lowest value of – 0.903 kg was due to sire 64384 for birth weight  . BCS BLUP values  were 0.175 for sire 182  and – 0.527  for sire 64398 . The  highest  BLUP  value for dam weight was 18.48 kg for dam No. 11384 whereas the lowest was -12.94 for  dam 11361. Dam 10996 exhibited the highest breeding value for birth weight 1.972 kg and was also  among the top for BCS . These results indicate that BCS is  the best trait for genetic improvement because it  has higher genetic value so can be considered in selection programe. Sire 182 was the best for birth weight and BCS , dam weight inheritance was low because it is influenced by feeding also pregnancy as environmental effect. so, selection upon sires and dams  with highest BLUP values will be active to improve the herd because  

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