• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.302-307
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• 2010

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of maternal factors on body weight at hatching (day-old) and at six weeks of age in a commercial broiler line. A total of 6,765 records on body weight at day-old (BWTDO) and 115,421 records on body weight at six weeks of age (BWT6W), originated from a commercial broiler line during 14 generations, were used to estimate genetic parameters related to the effects of maternal traits on body weight of chicks immediately after hatch or six weeks thereafter. The data were analyzed using restricted maximum likelihood procedure (REML) and an animal model with DFREML software. Direct heritability ($h^{2}{_a}$), maternal heritability ($h^{2}{_m}$), and maternal environmental variance as the proportions of phenotypic variance ($c^{2}$) for body weight at day-old were estimated to be 0.050, 0.351, and 0.173, respectively. The respective estimated values for body weight at six weeks of age were 0.340, 0.022, and 0.030. The correlation coefficient between direct and maternal genetic effects for six-week-old body weight was found to be -0.335. Covariance components and genetic correlations were estimated using a bivariate analysis based on the best model determined by a univariate analysis. Between weights at hatching and at six week-old, the values of -0.07, 0.53 and 0.47 were found for the direct additive genetic variance, maternal additive genetic variance and permanent maternal environmental variance, respectively. The estimated correlation between direct additive genetic effect influencing weight at hatch and direct additive maternal effect affecting weight at six weeks of age was -0.21, whereas the correlation value of 0.15 was estimated between direct additive maternal effect influencing weight at hatch and direct additive genetic effect affecting weight at six-week-old. From the present findings, it can be concluded that the maternal additive genetic effect observed for weight at six weeks of age might be a factor transferred from genes influencing weight at hatch to weight at six-week-old.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2001

Additive and dominance genetic variances were estimated for purebred Landrace selected with line breeding from 1989 to 1995 at Miyazaki Livestock Experiment Station, Kawaminami Branch. Ten body measurements, two reproductive traits and fifteen carcass traits were analyzed with single-trait mixed model analysis. The estimates of narrow-sense heritabilities by additive model were in the range of 0.07 to 0.46 for body measurements, 0.05 to 0.14 for reproductive traits, and 0.05 to 0.68 for carcass traits. The additive model tended to slightly overestimate the narrow-sense heritabilities as compared to the additive and dominance model. The proportion of the dominance variance to total genetic variance ranged from 0.11 to 0.91 for body measurements, 0.00 to 0.65 for reproductive traits, and 0.00 to 0.86 for carcass traits. Large differences among traits were found in the ratio of dominance to total genetic variance. These results suggested that dominance effect would affect the expression of all ten body measurements, one reproductive trait, and nine carcass traits. It is justified to consider the dominance effects in genetic evaluation of the selected lines for those traits.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.441-444
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• 1998

The negative direct-maternal genetic correlation $(r_{dm})$ for weaning weight is inflated when data are analyzed with model ignoring sire-by-year interactions (SY). An analytical study investigating the consequences of ignoring SY was undertaken. The inflation of negative correlation could be due to a functional relationship of design matrices for additive direct and maternal genetic effects to that for sire effects within which SY effects were nested. It was proven that the maternal genetic variance was inflated by the amount of reduction for sire variance; the direct genetic variance was inflated by four times the change for maternal genetic variance; and the direct-maternal genetic covariance was deflated by twice the change for maternal genetic variance. The findings were agreed to the results in previous studies.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.510-513
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• 1997

This study examined the effects of ignoring inbreeding depression on (co)variance components for weaning weight through the use of Monte Carlo simulation. Weaning weight is of particular interest as a trait for which additive direct and maternal genetic components exist and there then is the potential for a direct-maternal genetic covariance. Ignoring inbreeding depression in the analytical model (.8 kg reduction of phenotypic value per 1% inbreeding) led to biased estimates of all genetic (co) variance components, all estimates being larger than the true values of the parameters. In particular, a negative bias in the direct-maternal genetic covariance was observed in analyses that ignored inbreeding depression. A small spurious sire-by-year interaction variance was also observed.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.425-430
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• 2012

The southwestern Australian frog Crinia georgiana (Anura; Myobatrachidae) inhabits ephemeral pools in which the tadpoles often face desiccation. Under these conditions selection on tadpoles can be severe and can directly affect fitness during the aquatic as well as the terrestrial developmental stages. A quantitative genetic study using a half-sib breeding design was conducted to understand the genetic effects on larval life-history traits. We found no significant additive genetic variance in any of larval traits. Except for hatching period, heritability estimates based on females were high in egg size, larval period, snout-vent length, and weight at metamorphosis, suggesting non-additive genetic effects. These results indicate that any response to selection during hatching and larval periods should be predominately governed by non-additive genetic effects in C. georgiana.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.931-936
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• 2009

Body weights of 862 Angora goats between birth and 36 months of age, recorded on a semiyearly basis from 1988 to 2000, were used to estimate genetic, permanent environmental and phenotypic covariance functions. These functions were estimated by fitting a random regression model with 6th order polynomial for direct additive genetic and animal permanent environmental effects and 4th and 5th order polynomial for maternal genetic and permanent environmental effects, respectively. A phenotypic covariance function was estimated by modelling overall animal and maternal effects. The results showed that the most variable coefficient was the intercept for both direct and maternal additive genetic effects. The direct additive genetic (co)variances increased with age and reached a maximum at about 30 months, whereas the maternal additive genetic (co)variances increased rapidly from birth and reached a maximum at weaning, and then decreased with age. Animal permanent environmental (co)variances increased with age from birth to 30 months with lower rate before 12 months and higher rate between 12 and 30 months. Maternal permanent environmental (co)variances changed little before 6 months but then increased slowly and reached a maximum at about 30 months. These results suggested that the contribution of maternal additive genetic and permanent environmental effects to growth variation differed from those of direct additive genetic and animal permanent environmental effects not only in expression time, but also in action magnitude. The phenotypic (co)variance estimates increased with age from birth to 36 months of age.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.166-171
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• 2002

The main objective of the present study is to estimate the crossbreeding parameters in respect to serum lysozyme level in broilers. The experiment involved a complete $4{\times}4$ diallel design using four synthetic broiler lines namely Coloured Synthetic Male Line (CSML), White Synthetic Male Line (WSML), Coloured Synthetic Female Line (CSFL) and Naked Neck Line (NNL). The lyophilised Micrococcus lysodeikticus suspension was used to detect the lysozyme level in the serum of birds. The data were analysed by least-squares method to find the effects of genetic and non-genetic factors using appropriate model. The crossbreeding parameters for this trait were estimated by complete diallel model assuming the effect of each synthetic line as fixed. The results indicated that additive and non-additive genetic variation attributed to minor genes at many loci is important for the genetic control of serum lysozyme level in chickens. Total non-additive components of variance also showed significant amount of heterosis in crossbred progenies, and therefore exploitation of non-additive component of variance is possible for improvement in serum lysozyme level in broilers. The overall results suggested that for commercial broiler production system, the selection for specialised line on the basis of serum lysozyme level and subsequent crossing of parent lines could enhance the immunocompetence status in relation to serum lysozyme level in crossbred chickens.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.1558-1565
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• 2020

Objective: The objective of this study was to characterize the number of loci affecting growth traits and the distribution of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) effects on growth traits, and to understand the genetic architecture for growth traits in Hanwoo (Korean cattle) using genome-wide association study (GWAS), genomic partitioning, and hierarchical Bayesian mixture models. Methods: GWAS: A single-marker regression-based mixed model was used to test the association between SNPs and causal variants. A genotype relationship matrix was fitted as a random effect in this linear mixed model to correct the genetic structure of a sire family. Genomic restricted maximum likelihood and BayesR: A priori information included setting the fixed additive genetic variance to a pre-specified value; the first mixture component was set to zero, the second to 0.0001×σ²_g, the third 0.001×σ²_g, and the fourth to 0.01×σ²_g. BayesR fixed a priori information was not more than 1% of the genetic variance for each of the SNPs affecting the mixed distribution. Results: The GWAS revealed common genomic regions of 2 Mb on bovine chromosome 14 (BTA14) and 3 had a moderate effect that may contain causal variants for body weight at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. This genomic region explained approximately 10% of the variance against total additive genetic variance and body weight heritability at 12, 18, and 24 months. BayesR identified the exact genomic region containing causal SNPs on BTA14, 3, and 22. However, the genetic variance explained by each chromosome or SNP was estimated to be very small compared to the total additive genetic variance. Causal SNPs for growth trait on BTA14 explained only 0.04% to 0.5% of the genetic variance Conclusion: Segregating mutations have a moderate effect on BTA14, 3, and 19; many other loci with small effects on growth traits at different ages were also identified.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.471-481
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• 2021

Objective: A comprehensive study was conducted to study the effects of partition of variance on accuracy of genetic parameters and genetic trends of economic traits in Vanaraja male line/project directorate-1 (PD-1) chicken. Methods: Variance component analysis utilizing restricted maximum likelihood animal model was carried out with five generations data to delineate the population status, direct additive, maternal genetic, permanent environmental effects, besides genetic trends and performance of economic traits in PD-1 chickens. Genetic trend was estimated by regression of the estimated average breeding values (BV) on generations. Results: The body weight (BW) and shank length (SL) varied significantly (p≤0.01) among the generations, hatches and sexes. The least squares mean of SL at six weeks, the primary trait was 77.44±0.05 mm. All the production traits, viz., BWs, age at sexual maturity, egg production (EP) and egg weight were significantly influenced by generation. Model four with additive, maternal permanent environmental and residual effects was the best model for juvenile growth traits, except for zero-day BW. The heritability estimates for BW and SL at six weeks (SL6) were 0.20±0.03 and 0.17±0.03, respectively. The BV of SL6 in the population increased linearly from 0.03 to 3.62 mm due to selection. Genetic trend was significant (p≤0.05) for SL6, BW6, and production traits. The average genetic gain of EP40 for each generation was significant (p≤0.05) with an average increase of 0.38 eggs per generation. The average inbreeding coefficient was 0.02 in PD-1 line. Conclusion: The population was in ideal condition with negligible inbreeding and the selection was quite effective with significant genetic gains in each generation for primary trait of selection. The animal model minimized the over-estimation of genetic parameters and improved the accuracy of the BV, thus enabling the breeder to select the suitable breeding strategy for genetic improvement.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.1682-1687
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• 2016

The objective of this study was to estimate the genetic parameters of milk protein yields in Iranian Holstein dairy cattle. A total of 1,112,082 test-day milk protein yield records of 167,269 first lactation Holstein cows, calved from 1990 to 2010, were analyzed. Estimates of the variance components, heritability, and genetic correlations for milk protein yields were obtained using a random regression test-day model. Milking times, herd, age of recording, year, and month of recording were included as fixed effects in the model. Additive genetic and permanent environmental random effects for the lactation curve were taken into account by applying orthogonal Legendre polynomials of the fourth order in the model. The lowest and highest additive genetic variances were estimated at the beginning and end of lactation, respectively. Permanent environmental variance was higher at both extremes. Residual variance was lowest at the middle of the lactation and contrarily, heritability increased during this period. Maximum heritability was found during the 12th lactation stage ($0.213{\pm}0.007$). Genetic, permanent, and phenotypic correlations among test-days decreased as the interval between consecutive test-days increased. A relatively large data set was used in this study; therefore, the estimated (co)variance components for random regression coefficients could be used for national genetic evaluation of dairy cattle in Iran.