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Genetic and environmental causes of variation in birth weight of Black Bengal goats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

S. K. Moulick  and
O. Syrstad
S. K. Moulick
Affiliation:
Central Livestock Besearch-cum-Breeding Station, Haringhata, West Bengal, India
O. Syrstad
Affiliation:
Central Livestock Besearch-cum-Breeding Station, Haringhata, West Bengal, India
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Summary

An investigation on the different environmental and genetic causes of variation in the birth weight of Black Bengal goats was conducted at the Central Livestock Research-cum-Breeding Station, Haringhata, India. The data consisted of 1375 birth weight records of kids from 284 does and 20 bucks during the period from 1955 to 1961. The goats were maintained under standard farm management throughout the period.

Year had significant effect on birth weight, while the effect of season was insignificant. The interaction was, however, significant. Male kids were significantly heavier at birth than the females. Age of dam and litter size also caused significant variation in birth weight of kids.

From paternal half-sib analysis the heritability of birth weight was estimated to be 0·01. Full sib and maternal half sib analyses estimated the maternal environment common to litter mates to account for 60 % of the variance, out of which 25 % were due to permanent differences between dams. The remaining 39 % were attributed to individual environment, including most of the non-additive genetic variance. The heritability of maternal environment was estimated to be 0·2.

The partial correlation coefficient between birth weight of kids and post-kidding body weight of their dam, independent of litter size and age of dam, was 0·175. Thus, body size of dam, as indicated by post kidding body weight, did not reveal much information about maternal environment.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , June 1970 , pp. 409 - 414
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

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