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Amir Rashidi

Amir Rashidi

Academic rank: Professor
ORCID:
Education: PhD.
ScopusId: 23009961900
HIndex:
Faculty: Faculty of Agriculture
Address: Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran.
Phone: 08733668512

Research

Title
Genetic parameter estimates for pre-weaning performance and reproduction traits in Markhoz goats
Type
JournalPaper
Keywords
Goat Heritability, Growth traits, Kid mortality, Reproduction traits
Year
2011
Journal SMALL RUMINANT RESEARCH
DOI
Researchers Amir Rashidi ، S.C Bishop ، O Matica

Abstract

Genetic parameters for growth, mortality and reproductive performances of Markhoz goats were estimated from data collected during 1993–2010 at Markhoz goat Performance Test-ing Station in Sanandaj, Iran. For kid performance traits 3763 records were available for birth weight (BW), 2931 for weaning weight (WW), average daily gain (ADG) and Kleiber ratio (KR) (approximated as ADW/WW0.75) and 3032 for pre-weaning mortality (PWM). For doe reproductive performance traits there were 2920 records available for litter size at birth (LSB), litter size at weaning (LSW), total litter weight at birth (TLWB) and litter mean weight per kid born (LMWKB), and 2182 for total litter weight at weaned (TLWW) and litter mean weight per kid weaned (LMWKW). Genetic parameters were estimated with univariate and bivariate models using restricted maximum likelihood (REML) procedures. Random effects were explored by fitting additive direct genetic effects, maternal additive genetic effects, maternal permanent environmental effects, the covariance between direct and maternal genetic effects, and common litter effects in different models for pre-weaning traits of kids. Also, in addition to an animal model, sire and threshold models, using a logit link function, were used for analyses of PWM. Models for LSB, LSW, TLWB, TLWW, LMWKB, and LMWKW included direct additive genetic effects, permanent environmental effects due to the animal as well as service sire effects. Estimated direct heritabilities were moderate for pre-weaning traits (0.22 for BW, 0.16 for WW, 0.21 for ADG, and 0.27 for KR and 0.29 for PWM), and low for reproduction traits (0.01 for LSB, 0.01 for LSW, 0.02 for TLWB, 0.03 for TLWW, 0.07 for LMWKB, and 0.06 for LMWKW). The estimates for the maternal additive genetic variance ratios were lower than direct heritability for BW (0.07) and KR (0.04). The estimate for the maternal permanent environmental variance ratios (c2) varied from 0.01 for KR to 0.07 for WW and ADG. The magnitude of