• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.789-793
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• 2003

An investigation was conducted on 729 Hariana cows maintained at Government Livestock Farm, Hisar, from 1973 to 1999, with an objective to compare the efficiency of various selection indices for attaining desired genetic gains in the index traits. The various traits included were age at first calving (AFC), service period (SP), calving interval (CI), days to first service (DFS), number of services per conception (NSPC), lactation milk yield (LY), peak yield (PY), dry period (DP). Except for LY, PY and AFC the heritabilities of all other traits were low. Desirable associations among reproductive traits are supportive of the fact that any one of these traits incorporated in simultaneous selection is expected to cause correlated response in other traits. Production traits (LY and PY) were positively correlated, while DP had low negative genetic correlation with LY, and high genetic correlation with PY. Thus, DP can be taken as additional criteria in selection index for better over all improvement. Almost all production traits except DP had low negative correlation with AFC, SP, DFS and CI meaning that reduction in reproduction traits up to certain level may increase production performance. While, the correlation of NSPC with LY and PY was moderate positive. Among four trait indices I23: incorporating PY, AFC, SP and NSPC and among three trait indices I1: incorporating LY, AFC and SP were the best as these required least number of generations (4.87 and 1.35, respectively) to attain desired goals. Next in order of preference were PY or LY along with DP and SP as the best indices (I20 and I16) of which, index with PY may be preferred instead of LY as it produced considerably high correlated response in LY and reduction in NSPC as well.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.1806-1820
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• 2023

Objective: The present study was aimed primarily for estimating various genetic parameters (heritability, genetic correlations) of reproduction (age at first calving [AFC], first service period [FSP]); production (first lactation milk, solid-not fat, and fat yield) and lifetime traits (lifetime milk yield, productive life [PL], herd life [HL]) in Tharparkar cattle to check the association of reproduction traits with lifetime traits through two different methods (Frequentist and Bayesian) for comparative purpose. Methods: Animal breeding data of Tharparkar cattle (n = 964) collected from Livestock farm unit of ICAR-NDRI Karnal for the period 1990 through 2019 were analyzed using a Frequentist least squares maximum likelihood method (LSML; Harvey, 1990) and a multi-trait Bayesian-Gibbs sampler approach (MTGSAM) for genetic correlations estimation of all the traits. Estimated breeding values of sires was obtained by BLUP and Bayesian analysis for the production traits. Results: Heritability estimates of most of the traits were medium to high with the LSML (0.20±0.44 to 0.49±0.71) and Bayesian approach (0.24±0.009 to 0.61±0.017), respectively. However, more reliable estimates were obtained using the Bayesian technique. A higher heritability estimate was obtained for AFC (0.61±0.017) followed by first lactation fat yield, first lactation solid-not fat yield, FSP, first lactation milk yield (FLMY), PL (0.60±0.013, 0.60±0.006, 0.57±0.024, 0.57±0.020, 0.42±0.025); while a lower estimate for HL (0.38±0.034) by MTGSAM approach. Genetic and phenotypic correlations were negative for AFC-PL, AFC-HL, FSP-PL, and FSP-HL (-0.59±0.19, -0.59±0.24, -0.38±0.101 and -0.34±0.076) by the multi-trait Bayesian analysis. Conclusion: Breed and traits of economic importance are important for selection decisions to ensure genetic gain in cattle breeding programs. Favourable genetic and phenotypic correlations of AFC with production and lifetime traits compared to that of FSP indicated better scope of AFC for indirect selection of life-time traits at an early age. This also indicated that the present Tharparkar cattle herd had sufficient genetic diversity through the selection of AFC for the improvement of first lactation production and lifetime traits.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.1009-1014
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• 2012

Environmental stress boosts the levels of stress hormones and accelerates energy expenditure which subsequently imbalance the body's homeostasis. L-ascorbic acid (L-AA) has been recognized to mitigate the negative impact of environmental stress on production performances in birds. The present investigation was carried out to elucidate the effect of different dietary levels of L-AA on production performance, egg quality traits and fertility in Japanese quail at low ambient temperature. Sixty matured females (15 wks) were equally divided into three groups (20/group) based on the different dietary levels of L-AA (0, 250 and 500 ppm) and coupled with an equal number of males (1:1) obtained from the same hatch. They were managed in uniform husbandry conditions without restriction of feed and water at 14 h photo-schedule. Except for feed efficiency, body weight change, feed consumption and hen-day egg production were recorded highest in 500 ppm L-AA supplemented groups. Among the all egg quality traits studied, only specific gravity, shell weight and thickness differed significantly (p<0.05) in the present study. Fertility was improved significantly ($p{\leq}0.01$) to a dose dependent manner of L-AA. The findings of the present study concluded that dietary L-AA can be a caring management practice at least in part to alleviate the adverse effect of cold induced stress on production performance in Japanese quail.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.899-907
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• 2023

Objective: The better understanding of laying pattern of birds is crucial for developing breed-specific proper breeding scheme and management. Methods: Daily egg production until 50 wk of age of six chicken breeds including one layer (White Leghorn, WL), three dual-purpose (Rhode Island Red, RIR; Columbian Plymouth Rock, CR; and Barred Plymouth Rock, BR), one synthetic dwarf (DY), and one indigenous (Beijing-You Chicken, BYC) were used to characterize their clutch traits and egg production. The age at first egg, egg number, average and maximum clutch length, pause length, and number of clutches and pauses were calculated accordingly. Results: The egg number and average clutch length in WL, RIR, CR, and BR were higher than those in DY and BYC (p<0.01). The numbers of clutches and pauses, and pause length in WL, RIR, CR, and BR were lower than those in DY and BYC (p<0.01). The coefficient variations of clutch length in WL, RIR, CR, and BR (57.66%, 66.49%, 64.22%, and 55.35%, respectively) were higher than DY (41.84%) and BYC (36.29%), while the coefficient variations of egg number in WL, RIR, CR, and BR (9.10%, 9.97%, 10.82%, and 9.92%) were lower than DY (15.84%) and BYC (16.85%). The clutch length was positively correlated with egg number (r = 0.51 to 0.66; p<0.01), but not correlated with age at first egg in all breeds. Conclusion: The six breeds showed significant different clutch and egg production traits. Due to the selection history, the high and median productive layer breeds had higher clutch length than those of the less productive indigenous BYC. The clutch length is a proper selection criterion for further progress in egg production. The age at first egg, which is independent of clutch traits, is especially encouraged to be improved by selection in the BYC breed.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.303-308
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• 2007

In order to investigate the relation of production traits and reproduction traits the data from Gyungnam heugdon(Berkshire) were analyzed. Pearson correlation coefficients of the reproductive traits including days to first farrowing, days to first breeding and no. of breeding for first litter with back fat thickness were ranged -.24 to -.26. Estimates of heritability and genetic correlation for the reproductive traits including days to first farrowing, days to first breeding and no. of breeding for first litter showed frequent and wide fluctuation due to lack of reproductive records. Pearson correlation coefficients of back fat with litter traits were low, but genetic correlation coefficients were relatively high. Genetic correlation coefficients of back fat with total litter size, pigs born alive, litter weight at birth and litter weight at weaning were .21, .24, .11 and .07 respectively. It suggests that thin back fat thickness deteriorates performance of litter traits. Genetic correlation coefficients of days to 90kg with total litter size, pigs born alive, litter weight at birth and litter weight at weaning were .14, .17, .09 and .00 respectively. This result imply that genetic improvement on the production traits reduce the litter trait performance.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.396-400
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• 2010

This experiment investigated the effects of increasing dietary vitamin E (VE) on production performance and egg quality traits of Indian reared Kadaknath (KN) hens. One hundred and eighty (180), day old female KN chicks were randomly distributed to three dietary treatment groups for a period of 30 weeks. Each treatment comprised three replicates, each containing 20 chicks. The basal diet ($T_1$) contained 15 IU VE/kg and the two experimental diets were supplemented with 150 and 300 IU VE/kg (diets $T_2$ and $T_3$, respectively). DL-${\alpha}$-tocopherol acetate was used as the source of VE. All chicks were provided feed and water ad libitum. Production performance in terms of body weight, egg weight and hatchability did not differ significantly (p>0.05), whereas sexual maturity, egg production and fertility differed significantly (p<0.05) in $T_2$ compared to the other two groups. Egg quality traits in terms of albumin weight, yolk weight, shell thickness, albumin index and yolk index did not differ significantly (p>0.05), whereas the Haugh unit score was significantly higher (p<0.05) in $T_2$ than the control ($T_1$) and high dose treatment group ($T_3$). From this study, it can be concluded that lower levels of dietary VE may be beneficial for production performance and Haugh unit score but have no effect on egg quality traits in Indian reared KN hens.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.191-199
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• 2023

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and genes associated with nine reproduction and morphological traits in three breed populations of Chinese goats. Methods: The genome-wide association of nine reproduction and morphological traits (litter size, nipple number, wattle, skin color, coat color, black dorsal line, beard, beard length, and hind leg hair) were analyzed in three Chinese native goat breeds (n = 336) using an Illumina Goat SNP50 Beadchip. Results: A total of 17 genome-wide or chromosome-wide significant SNPs associated with one reproduction trait (litter size) and six morphological traits (wattle, coat color, black dorsal line, beard, beard length, and hind leg hair) were identified in three Chinese native goat breeds, and the candidate genes were annotated. The significant SNPs and corresponding putative candidate genes for each trait are as follows: two SNPs located on chromosomes 6 (CSN3) and 24 (TCF4) for litter size trait; two SNPs located on chromosome 9 (KATNA1) and 1 (UBASH3A) for wattle trait; three SNPs located on chromosome 26 (SORCS3), 24 (DYM), and 20 (PDE4D) for coat color trait; two SNPs located on chromosome 18 (TCF25) and 15 (CLMP) for black dorsal line trait; four SNPs located on chromosome 8, 2 (PAX3), 5 (PIK3C2G), and 28 (PLA2G12B and OIT3) for beard trait; one SNP located on chromosome 18 (KCNG4) for beard length trait; three SNPs located on chromosome 17 (GLRB and GRIA2), 28 (PGBD5), and 4 for hind leg hair trait. In contrast, there were no SNPs identified for nipple number and skin color. Conclusion: The significant SNPs or genes identified in this study provided novel insights into the genetic mechanism underlying important reproduction and morphological traits of three local goat breeds in Southern China as well as further potential applications for breeding goats.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.1550-1556
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• 2017

Objective: This study estimated the genetic parameters for productive and reproductive traits. Methods: The data included production and reproduction records of animals that have calved between 1979 and 2013. The genetic parameters were estimated using multivariate mixed models (DMU) package, fitting univariate and multivariate mixed models with average information restricted maximum likelihood algorithm. Results: The estimates of heritability for milk production traits from the first three lactation records were $0.03{\pm}0.03$ for lactation length (LL), $0.17{\pm}0.04$ for lactation milk yield (LMY), and $0.15{\pm}0.04$ for 305 days milk yield (305-d MY). For reproductive traits the heritability estimates were, $0.09{\pm}0.03$ for days open (DO), $0.11{\pm}0.04$ for calving interval (CI), and $0.47{\pm}0.06$ for age at first calving (AFC). The repeatability estimates for production traits were $0.12{\pm}0.02$, for LL, $0.39{\pm}0.02$ for LMY, and $0.25{\pm}0.02$ for 305-d MY. For reproductive traits the estimates of repeatability were $0.19{\pm}0.02$ for DO, and to $0.23{\pm}0.02$ for CI. The phenotypic correlations between production and reproduction traits ranged from $0.08{\pm}0.04$ for LL and AFC to $0.42{\pm}0.02$ for LL and DO. The genetic correlation among production traits were generally high (>0.7) and between reproductive traits the estimates ranged from $0.06{\pm}0.13$ for AFC and DO to $0.99{\pm}0.01$ between CI and DO. Genetic correlations of productive traits with reproductive traits were ranged from -0.02 to 0.99. Conclusion: The high heritability estimates observed for AFC indicated that reasonable genetic improvement for this trait might be possible through selection. The $h^2$ and r estimates for reproductive traits were slightly different from single versus multi-trait analyses of reproductive traits with production traits. As single-trait method is biased due to selection on milk yield, a multi-trait evaluation of fertility with milk yield is recommended.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.1109-1115
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• 2008

The reproduction component traits are important components of sow efficiency. The objective of this study was to evaluate the phenotypic and genetic parameters of four reproduction component traits (age at puberty (AP), preweaning number dead (PND), weaning to service interval (WSI), and intra-individual SD in litter size (IISDLS)) of sows in two Chinese indigenous pig breeds. Available reproductive records including 22,591 piglets born from 2,054 litters by 574 Jiangquhai sows and 464 Meishan sows were used in this investigation. A set of mixed models and restricted maximum likelihood methodology were used for the multiple trait analyses of these traits. The results showed that the estimates of heritabilities (${\pm}$standard error) for AP, PND, WSI and IISDLS were $0.40{\pm}0.05$, $0.06{\pm}0.03$, $0.20{\pm}0.02$ and 0.09{\pm}0.03 in Jiangquhai sows, and $0.35{\pm}0.06$, $0.05{\pm}0.03$, $0.18{\pm}0.03$ and $0.10{\pm}0.04$ in Meishan sows, respectively. There was moderate genetic correlation between AP and WSI, while there were low genetic correlations between the other pairwise traits. The genetic correlations were positive for most of the pairwise traits, except for the one between AP and IISDLS. The results indicated that all traits except for AP were difficult to make genetic improvement by traditional selection methods due to low heritabilities and the favorable improvement of AP might result in unfavorable changes of IISDLS due to the trend of genetic antagonism.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.182-187
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• 2010

The aim of this experiment was to evaluate the levels of hormones (progesterone, IGF-I and IGFBP-3) in blood plasma, growth, carcass traits and their interactions of sexually immature (n = 18) and sexually mature (n = 17) gilts. To calculate average daily weight gain (ADG), gilts were individually weighed at the beginning of the trial and at slaughter (110${\pm}$10 days old). Blood concentrations of progesterone, IGF-I and IGFBP-3 were determined by RIA. The right hot carcass sides were dissected and the individual basic parts from carcasses were weighed to record the carcass traits. IGFBP-3, ADG and carcass traits were not affected by pubertal maturation. Compared to sexually immature gilts, mature gilts had higher blood concentrations of progesterone and IGF-I. High correlations were noted between levels of some hormonal substances, productive performance and carcass traits of sexually immature and mature gilts.