Estimation of co (variance) components and genetic parameters for growth and feed efficiency traits in Jamunapari goat

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smallrumres.2021.106317Get rights and content

Highlights

  • The growth traits were significantly affected by non-genetic factors indicating importance of management in farm.

  • The inbreeding coefficient for the flock was only 0.83 %, due to planned scientific breeding.

  • Moderate estimates of the heritability for growth and feed efficiency traits revealed scope of further selection in the flock.

  • Live weight at 6, 9 and 12-month had high genetic correlation, indicating absence of GxE and hence scope of early selection.

  • Development of selection index using 6-month weight and post weaning KR is possible for selecting efficient goats.

Abstract

Jamunapari goat is majestic dual purpose goat adapted to semi-arid climate in India. The aim of the present study was to assess the genetic potential of Jamunapari goat and design breeding program based on growth and feed efficiency traits. A total of 8763 animals descended from 1845 dams and 339 sires between 1982–2019 (37 years) at ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Goats, Makhdoom were used for the analysis. The effect of period and season of kidding, sex, type of birth and weight of doe at kidding was significant on live weights, average daily gains (ADG) and Kleiber ratio (KR). The estimates of genetic parameters were obtained for these traits by univariate and bivariate animal models using the average information restricted maximum likelihood (AIREML). Average inbreeding coefficient for the pedigree (N = 9418) was 0.83 % and amongst inbred animals (N = 3751), it was 2.045 %, indicating that the scientific mating could keep the inbreeding within normal limits in a nucleus flock. Genetic analysis revealed that the inclusive model for direct effect of animal and dam and their covariance and permanent environment of dam was best for birth weight (BW), however the model with direct effects of animal and dam along with their covariance was best for all other traits. Early growth traits were having significant maternal effect that faded as the age advanced. Correcting for maternal effects was essential to obtain unbiased estimated of heritability using univariate analysis. Moderate estimates of the heritability (h2) were obtained using multivariate analysis. The estimates were 0.17 ± 0.02, 0.19 ± 0.01, 0.20 ± 0.02, 0.16 ± 0.02, 0.17 ± 0.02, 0.20 ± 0.02, 0.14 ± 0.02, 0.13 ± 0.02, 0.22 ± 0.02, 0.14 ± 0.02 and 0.18 ± 0.02 for birth weight (BW), three month weight (3 MW), six month weight (6 MW), nine month weight (9 MW), twelve month weight (12 MW), ADG1 (birth to 3-month), ADG2 (three to six month), ADG3 (six to 12-month), KR1 (ADG1/3 MW0.75), KR2 (ADG2/6 MW0.75) and KR3 (ADG3/12 MW0.75), respectively. Results for multivariate analysis were similar but little better as compared to estimates from univariate analysis, provided we accounted for maternal effect appropriately. Moderate h2 estimates augurs the scope for selection of Jamunapari goats for growth and feed efficiency traits. The high and positive genetic and phenotypic correlations between post-weaning weights indicate that early selection of Jamunapari goat by reducing age at selection from 9-month to 6-month is possible owing to lower GxE and higher chances of retaining ranks by animals in adulthood. ADG and their corresponding KR have high genetic correlations and thus kids can be indirectly selected for higher feed efficiency. The selection index combining live weight at 6-month and post-weaning KR will be useful for early selection of Jamunapari goat.

Introduction

Jamunapari is one of the most important dual purpose goat breed with higher growth rate, milk production and it is well adapted to semi-arid climatic conditions. It has derived its name from Jamuna River and is native of Etawa district of Uttar Pradesh, India. This breed is tall, white in color, have pendulous ears and large body size (Rout et al., 2000). This breed was used to evolve the Anglo-Nubian breed of England and also has been extensively used to upgrade goats in Southeast Asian countries (Rout et al., 2004). Nucleus flock of Jamunapari goat has been established at ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Goat (ICAR-CIRG) in 1982 and since then selective breeding is practiced to improve the performance of flock for body weight, milk yield and prolificacy, besides distribution of elite germplasm for genetic improvement in field flocks. Chevon is most preferred and widely consumed meat in the country (Sen et al., 2004). The demand for chevon is progressively increasing and expected to further mount in future in view of substantial increase in per capita income. The per capita meat availability in India is only 15 g per day as compared to ICMR requirement of 30 g. Due to social taboos associated with consumption of beef and pork in India, the pressure on small ruminants and poultry is tremendous. Therefore, to meet the increasing demand and also to boost small marginal farmers, there is an urgent need to increase productivity of the goat for meat production.

In order to improve the production performance, growth and feed efficiency are utmost important traits in goat. Moreover, market weight of the goat is affected by the ADG. The Kleiber ratio is the more accurate indicator of growth measurement as it takes account of metabolic body weight. The Kleiber ratio, defined as ADG / metabolic body weight, has therefore been suggested as useful indicator of growth efficiency and as an indirect selection criterion for conversion of feed efficiency (Kleiber, 1947; Koster et al., 1994). The feed conversion efficiency is a more suitable selection criterion for achieving higher growth than the live weight itself. The additive genetic, maternal and environmental effects are known to influence the growth in goats. The information of genetic correlation among the traits is very important in any selection programme as biologically the traits are associated at genetic level and selection of one trait affects the linked trait either in positive or negative direction. The selection potential is largely dependent on the heritability of the measured trait and its correlation with other traits. Various studies have been carried out to analyze the effect of various factors affecting growth traits in different goat breeds using sire and animal model (Bosso et al., 2007; Boujenane and El-Hazzab, 2008; Rashidi et al., 2008, 2011; Zhang et al., 2008, 2009; Gholizadeh et al., 2010; Gowane et al., 2011; Mohammadi et al., 2012; Zhou et al., 2015; Rout et al., 2018; Latifi and Razmkabir, 2019; Mokhtari et al., 2019, Meza-Herrera et al., 2019; Ofori and Hegan, 2020). Accurate and unbiased estimation of the genetic parameters is very much essential for selection decisions in the breeding program. Inaccurate estimates usually fail at the levels of realized genetic gains mostly due to inflated or deflated estimates of heritability that affects the predicted response. The estimates of genetic correlations for growth and feed efficiency traits have not been studied in details in Jamunapari goat. Therefore, the main objective of the study was to estimate the genetic parameters for live weight traits at different ages, average daily gains and kleiber ratios and also to obtain the genetic and phenotypic correlations among these traits using the average information restricted maximum likelihood (AIREML) in order to design future selection plan for higher growth.

Section snippets

Location and environment

Data available on pedigree and growth performance were collected from the breeding flock of Jamunapari goat maintained at the ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Goats, Makhdoom. The institute farm is located on the banks of river Yamuna, at 78°02′ E Latitude and 27° 10′ N Longitude at an altitude of 169 m above mean sea level. The farm climate is semi-arid in nature while the average temperature varies from minimum 2 °C (winter) to maximum 48.5 °C (summer). The average rainfall is around

Result and discussion

The characteristics of the pedigree, data structure and significance of the non-genetic factors on growth traits, average daily gains and kleiber ratios are presented in Table 1. The average inbreeding coefficient for the pedigree (N = 9418) was 0.83 %, which was quite low for the nucleus maintained for more than 30 years. The inbreeding coefficient for the inbred animals (N = 3751) was 2.045 %. The low rate of inbreeding is the result of scientific mating which could keep the inbreeding within

Conclusion

The findings of this study has underlined the importance of maternal effects in Jamunapari goat and their influence on growth and feed efficiency traits. These results indicate that it is imperative to take these effects in to consideration for obtaining unbiased estimates of genetic parameters as they affect the breeding objective. Significant genetic variability suggests further scope of selection for growth and feed efficiency traits in Jamunapari goat. The high and positive genetic

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors report no declarations of interest.

Acknowledgement

Authors acknowledge the contribution of data recorder/technical staff at farm and past project investigators. This project was funded by ICAR-All India coordinated research project on Jamunapari goat. The support provided by the Director of the institute for execution of project is also gratefully acknowledged.

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    Current address: Scientist, National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, Karnal, 132001, Haryana.

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