Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T14:56:24.209Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The inheritance of fibre traits in a crossbred population of cashmere goats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

S. C. Bishop  and
A. J. F. Russel
S. C. Bishop
Affiliation:
Roslin Institute (Edinburgh), Midlothian EH25 9PS
A. J. F. Russel
Affiliation:
Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Hartwood Research Station, Shotts ML7 4JY
Get access

Abstract

Genetic parameters were calculated for fibre traits measured on patch samples taken at 5 months of age on a crossbred population of cashmere goats, comprising goats of Scottish feral, Icelandic, Tasmanian, New Zealand and Siberian origin. Within-strain heritabilities, fitting genetic origin as a covariable, were: live weight, 0·71 (s.e. 0·08), fibre diameter, 0·63 (0·07), diameter standard deviation 0·43 (0·08), logipatch cashmere weight), 0·60 (0·06), log(estimated annual cashmere production), 0·51 (0·07), and fibre length, 0·49 (0·15). Including between strain information increased these values to 0·74, 0·68, 0·45, 0·73, 0·67 and 0·57, respectively. Maternal effects for all fibre traits were negligible. Expressions were derived to relate cashmere weight to fibre diameter and length, using functional relationships between these traits. Logarithmic regressions showed cashmere weight to be proportional to diameter2'7, indicating that selection to reducefibre diameter will have a disproportionate effect on cashmere weight. Analyses of subsets of the data confirmed this and showed that correlated responses to selection can be accurately predicted by considering thefunctionally relatedfibre traits on the log scale.

Keywords

cashmerefibre qualitygenetic parametersgoatsselection
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Science , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , December 1996 , pp. 429 - 436
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1996

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

Bigham, M. L., Morris, C. A., Southey, B. R. and Baker, R. L. 1993. Heritabilities and genetic correlations for live weight and fibre traits in New Zealand Cashmere goats. Livestock Production Science 33: 91–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bishop, S. C. and Russel, A. J. F. 1994. Cashmere production from feral and imported cashmere goat kids. Animal Production 58: 135–144.Google Scholar
Burfening, P. J. and Kress, D. D. 1993. Direct and maternal effects of birth and weaning weight in sheep. Small Ruminant Research. 10: 153–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Couchman, R. C. and McGregor, B. A. 1983. A note on the assessment of down production in Australian 'cashmere' goats. Animal Production. 36: 317–320.Google Scholar
Couchman, R. C. and Wilkinson, J. L. 1987. Genetic estimates for commercial cashmere traits. Proceedings of the second international cashmere conference, Lincoln, New Zealand, pp. 68–83.Google Scholar
Gifford, D. R., Ponzoni, R. W., Ellis, N. J. S., Levinge, F. C. R. and Milne, M. L. 1990. Genetic parameters for production characteristics of Australian Cashmere goats. Proceedings of the Australian Association of Animal Breeding and Genetics 8: 461–465.Google Scholar
Gordon, I. J. and Fraser, M. D. 1993. Foraging ecology of fibre producing ruminant species. In Alternative animals for fibre production (ed. Russel, A. J. F.), pp. 63–76. Commission of the European Communities, Brussels.Google Scholar
International Wool Textile Organisation. 1989. Specification IWTO-8–89E. International Wool Secretariat, Ilkley, UK.Google Scholar
Maria, G. A., Boldman, K. G. and Van Vleck, L. D. 1993. Estimates of variance du e to direct and maternal effects for growth traits of Romanov sheep. Journal of Animal Science. 71: 845–849.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, K. 1989. Restricted maximum likelihood to estimate variance components for animal models with several random effects using a derivative-free algorithm. Genetique, Selection, Evolution. 21: 317–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pattie, W. A. and Restall, B. J. 1989. The inheritance of cashmere in Australia n goats. 2. Genetic parameters and breeding values. Livestock Production Science. 21: 251–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pattie, W. A., Restall, B. J. and Smith, G. A. 1989. The measurement of cashmere produced by Australia n feral goats. Proceedings of the Australian Association of Animal Production. 15: 525–528.Google Scholar
Pozo, M. del and Wright, I. A. 1995. Integration of sheep and goats in grazing systems on sown grass/clover swards. In Nutrition and grazing ecology of speciality fibre-producing animals (ed. Laker, J. P. and Russel, A. J. F.), European Fine Fibre Network, occasional publication no. 3, pp. 151–161.Google Scholar
Thompson, R., Crump, R. E., Juga, J. and Visscher, P. M. 1995. Estimating variance s and covariances for bivariat e animal-models using scaling and transformation. Genetics, Selection, Evolution. 27: 33–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, R. and Hill, W. G. 1990. Univariate REML analyses for multivariate data with the animal model. Proceedings of the fourth world congress on genetics applied to livestock production, Edinburgh, vol. XIII, pp. 484–487.Google Scholar
Tosh, J. J. and Kemp, R. A. 1994. Estimation of variance components for lamb weights in three sheep populations. Journal of Animal Science 72: 1184–1190.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed