Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T12:57:02.409Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Estimation of genetic parameters for litter size in sheep: a comparison of a repeatability and a multivariate model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

M. J. de Vries ,
E. H. van der Waaij  and
J. A. M. van Arendonk
M. J. de Vries
Affiliation:
Animal Breeding and Genetics Group, Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences, Wageningen Agricultural University, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands
E. H. van der Waaij
Affiliation:
Animal Breeding and Genetics Group, Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences, Wageningen Agricultural University, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands
J. A. M. van Arendonk
Affiliation:
Animal Breeding and Genetics Group, Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences, Wageningen Agricultural University, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands
Get access

Abstract

Genetic parameters were estimated for litter size in two prolific sheep breeds, i.e. the Zwartbles and the synthetic breed Swifter. Genetic parameters and breeding values for litter size in different parities were estimated using both a repeatability and a multivariate animal model. The estimated heritability from the repeatability model was 0·10 for the Zwartbles and 0·12 for the Swifter. For the multivariate model, heritability of litter size in first, second and third parity was 0·05, 0·07 and 0·10 for the Zwartbles and 0·09, 0·12 and 0·09 for the Swifter. Genetic correlation for litter size in Swifter was 0·81 between parity 1 and 2 and 0·99 between parity 2 and 3. For the Zwartbles genetic correlations were all very close to unity. Environmental correlations between litter size in subsequent parities were not constant over parities. Phenotypic variance in litter size in both breeds was 0·309 in first parity and was almost 50% higher in later parities. Based on the results it is recommended to apply a multiple trait model.

Keywords

genetic parameterslitter sizemultiple traitrepeatability modelsheep
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Science , Volume 66 , Issue 3 , June 1998 , pp. 685 - 688
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bekedam, M., Herweyer, C. H. and Pekelder, J. J. 1994. [Sheep breeding and sheep diseases.] Terra publisher, Zutphen, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Bradford, G. E. 1985. Genetics of reproduction in sheep. In Genetics of reproduction in sheep (ed. Land, R. B. and Robinson, D. W.), pp. 3–18. Butterworths, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graaf, F. de, Visscher, A. H. and Broek, H. van den. 1985. [Genetic and non-genetic influences on litter-size of Texel ewes.[ IVO-report B-256, Zeist, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Groeneveld, E. 1994. VCE — a multivariate multimodel REML (co)variance component estimation package. Proceedings of fifth world congress on genetics applied to livestock production, Guelph, vol. 22, pp. 47–48.Google Scholar
Groeneveld, E. and Kovac, M. 1990. A generalized computing procedure for setting up and solving mixed linear models. Journal of Dairy Science 73: 513–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, C. R. 1988. Theoretical basis and computational methods for a number of different animal models. Journal of Dairy Science 71: (suppl. 2) 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meuwissen, T. H. E., Jong, G. de and Engel, B. 1996. Joint estimation of breeding values and heterogeneous variances in large scale dairy data, journal of Dairy Science 79: 310–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olesen, I., Perez-Enciso, M., Gianola, D. and Thomas, D. L. 1994. A comparison of normal and non-normal mixed models for number of lambs born in Norwegian sheep. Journal of Animal Science 72: 1166–1173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roehe, R. and Kennedy, B. W. 1995. Estimation of genetic parameters for litter size in Canadian Yorkshire and Landrace swine with each parity of farrowing treated as a different trait. Journal of Animal Science 73: 2959–2970.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed