Genetic and Phenotypic Relationships between Kid Survival and Birth Weight in Australian Meat Goats

Title
Genetic and Phenotypic Relationships between Kid Survival and Birth Weight in Australian Meat Goats
Publication Date
2015
Author(s)
Aldridge, Michael Nicholas
Brown, Daniel
Pitchford, Wayne S
Editor
Editor(s): Kim Bunter, Tim Byrne, Hans Daetwyler, Susanne Hermesch, Kathryn Kemper, James Kijas, David Nation, Wayne Pitchford, Suzanne Rowe, Matt Shaffer, Alison van Eenennaam
Type of document
Conference Publication
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics (AAABG)
Place of publication
Armidale, Australia
UNE publication id
une:19209
Abstract
The Australian goat industry would like to improve reproductive rate by increasing kid survival. Parameter estimates for kid survival and correlated traits are yet to be reported. A preliminary analysis of birth weight and survival was conducted using 16,050 records from industry herds. The heritability for birth weight (0.32±0.029) was similar to previous reports, but the heritability for kid survival (0.29±0.024) was higher than expected in comparison to other breeds of goats and sheep. The phenotypic variance for birth weight is similar to those previously reported for Boer goats. For a binomial trait there was moderate variation in kid survival with a phenotypic deviation of 0.288, birth weight had a moderate amount of variation with a standard deviation of 0.599kg. The lowest kid survival rates occur in animals less than 2.5kg with survival rates between 67% and 85%, while animals over 2.5kg had survival rates between 92% and 98%, the overall mean for survival was 85%. The phenotypic correlation estimate of 0.16 is low but positive for birth weight and survival. The genetic correlation was also positive and high at 0.54±0.068. Improving survival could potentially be achieved either with direct selection or indirect selection with birth weight.
Link
Citation
Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics, v.21, p. 350-353
ISSN
1328-3227
ISBN
9780646945545
Start page
350
End page
353

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