• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.1074-1080
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• 2017

Objective: The growth, carcass and retail cut yield records on 1,428 Hanwoo steers obtained through progeny testing were analyzed in this study, and their heritability and genetic relationships among the traits were estimated using animal models. Methods: Two different models were compared in this study. Each model was fitted for different fixed class effects, date of slaughter for carcass traits and batch of progeny test live measurement traits, and a choice of covariates (carcass weight in Model 1 or backfat thickness in Model 2) for carcass traits. Results: The differences in body composition among individuals were deemed being unaffected by their age at slaughter, except for carcass weight and backfat thickness. Heritability estimates of body size measurements were 0.21 to 0.36. Heritability estimates of retail cut percentage were high (0.56 from Model 1 and 0.47 from Model 2). And the heritability estimates for loin muscle percentage were 0.36 from Model 1 and 0.42 from Model 2, which were high enough to consider direct selection on carcass cutability traits as effective. The genetic correlations between body size measurements and retail cut ratio (RCR) were close to zero. But, some negative genetic correlations were found with chest girths measured at yearling (Model 1) or at 24 months of age or with chest widths. Loin muscle ratio (LMR) was genetically negatively correlated with body weights or body size measurements, in general in Model 1. These relationships were low close to zero but positive in Model 2. Phenotypic correlation between cutability traits (RCR, LMR) and live body size measurements were moderate and negative in Model 1 while those in Model 2 were all close to zero. Conclusion: Therefore, the body weights or linear body measurements at an earlier age may not be the most desirable selection traits for exploitation of correlated responses to improve loin muscle or lean meat yield.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.1259-1265
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• 2015

The present study was performed to study the genetic relationship of productive life with production and type traits of Korean Holsteins at first three lactations. The data for the analysis from 56,054, 28,997, and 11,816 animals of first, second and third parity cows which were born from 2006 to 2011 were collected by Dairy Cattle Improvement Center, National Agricultural Co-operative Federation. Milk, protein and fat yields adjusted for 305 days and average somatic cell score considered as production traits and analyzed type traits were stature, strength, body depth, dairy form, rump angle, rump width, rear leg side view, foot angle, front attachment placement, rear attachment height, rear attachment width, udder cleft, udder depth, front teat placement and front teat length. A multi trait genetic analysis was performed using Wombat program with restricted maximum likelihood animal model composed of fixed effect of birth year, farm and the random effect of animal and random residual effect according to the traits. Heritability estimates of productive life were between 0.06 and 0.13. Genetic and phenotypic correlations between production and productive life traits ranged from 0.35 to 0.04 for milk, 0.16 to 0.05 for protein and 0.18 to 0.02 f 15-0034 (2nd) 150520 or fat. Somatic cells score showed a negative genetic and phenotypic correlation with productive life and also udder type traits, indicating that the selection for higher udder traits will likely to improve resistance to mastitis and persistence in the herd. Among all dairy form type traits, udder characters such as udder cleft showed a significant relationship with productive life. However, a specific change of heritabilities or correlations were not observed with the change of parity. Moreover, further studies are needed to further confirm the significance of the above traits and the effect of parity on above relationships in order to minimize both voluntary and involuntary culling rates while improving herd health and maintaining high yielding dairy cows.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.476-484
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• 2015

The objective of this study was to estimate genetic and phenotypic parameters for linear type traits, as well as milk yield (MY), fat yield (FY) and protein yield (PY) in 18,831 Holstein cows reared in 495 herds in Brazil. Restricted maximum likelihood with a bivariate model was used for estimation genetic parameters, including fixed effects of herd-year of classification, period of classification, classifier and stage of lactation for linear type traits and herd-year of calving, season of calving and lactation order effects for production traits. The age of cow at calving was fitted as a covariate (with linear and quadratic terms), common to both models. Heritability estimates varied from 0.09 to 0.38 for linear type traits and from 0.17 to 0.24 for production traits, indicating sufficient genetic variability to achieve genetic gain through selection. In general, estimates of genetic correlations between type and production traits were low, except for udder texture and angularity that showed positive genetic correlations (>0.29) with MY, FY, and PY. Udder depth had the highest negative genetic correlation (-0.30) with production traits. Selection for final score, commonly used by farmers as a practical selection tool to improve type traits, does not lead to significant improvements in production traits, thus the use of selection indices that consider both sets of traits (production and type) seems to be the most adequate to carry out genetic selection of animals in the Brazilian herd.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.905-909
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• 2001

Three groups of wethers viz. Jamunapari ♂$\times$Black Bengal ♀ (JBB), Selected Black Bengal ♂$\times$Selected Black Bengal ♀ (SBB) and Random Black Bengal ♂$\times$Random Black Bengal ♀ (RBB) of 1 year old were evaluated for pre-slaughter traits and carcass characteristics. The correlations between pre-slaughter traits and carcass traits were computed. It was found that the preslaughter weights of JBB and SBB were almost similar in yielding hot and chilled carcass as well as dressing percentage (DP). RBB wethers were lighter (p<0.05) than JBB and SBB in pre- and post-slaughter weights and also inferior (p<0.05) in DP. SBB wethers were found to produce more visceral fat compared to JBB and RBB. Other variety meats appeared erratic in yield.l. Correlations were compared by Z statistic among three genetic groups and the value of Z did not differ (p>0.05) between groups.

• Journal of the Korean Statistical Society
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.177-198
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• 2002

The estimation of variance components or variance ratios in linear model is an important issue in plant or animal breeding fields, and various estimation methods have been devised to estimate variance components or variance ratios. However, many traits of economic importance in those fields are observed as dichotomous or polychotomous outcomes. The usual estimation methods might not be appropriate for these cases. Recently threshold linear model is considered as an important tool to analyze discrete traits specially in animal breeding field. In this note, we consider a hierarchical Bayesian method for the threshold animal model. Gibbs sampler for making full Bayesian inferences about random effects as well as fixed effects is described to analyze jointly discrete traits and continuous traits. Numerical example of the model with two discrete ordered categorical traits, calving ease of calves from born by heifer and calving ease of calf from born by cow, and one normally distributed trait, birth weight, is provided.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.1425-1438
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• 2021

Maintaining a high level of beef consumption requires paying attention not only to quantitative traits but also to the quality and dietary properties of meat. Growing consumer demands do not leave producers many options for how animals are selected for breeding and animal keeping. Meat and carcass fatness quality traits, which are influenced by multiple genes, are economically important in beef cattle breeding programs. The recent availability of genome sequencing methods and many previously identified molecular markers offer new opportunities for animal breeding, including the use of molecular information in selection programs. Many gene polymorphisms have thus far been analyzed and evaluated as potential candidates for molecular markers of meat quality traits. Knowledge of these markers can be further applied to breeding programs through marker-assisted selection. In this literature review, we discuss the most promising and well-described candidates and their associations with selected beef production traits.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.1303-1308
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• 2021

Objective: The objective of this study was to define a new composite trait for Holstein dairy cows and evaluate the possibility of joint improvement in milk and fertility traits. Methods: A data set consisting 35,882 fertility related records (days open [DO], calving interval [CI], and number of services per conception [NSC], and total milk yield in each lactation [TMY]) was collected from 1998 to 2016 in Polish Holstein-Friesian breed herds. In this study TMY, DO, CI, and lactation length of each cow was used to obtain composite milk and fertility traits (CMF). Results: Moderate heritability (0.15) was estimated for composite trait that was higher than heritability of female fertility related traits: DO 0.047, CI 0.042, and NSC 0.014, and slightly lower than heritability of TMY 0.19. Favourable genetic correlations (-0.87) were estimated between CMF with TMY. Spearman rank correlation coefficients between breeding value of CMF with DO, CI, and TMY were high (>0.94) but with NSC were moderate (0.64). Selection on CMF caused favourable correlated genetic gains for DO, CI, and TMY. Different selection indices with different emphasis on fertility and milk production were constructed. The amount of correlated genetic gains obtained for DO and total milk production according to selection in CMF were higher than of genetic gains obtained for DO and TMY in selection indices with different emphasis on milk and fertility. Conclusion: The animal selection only based on a composite trait - CMF proposed in current study would simultaneously lead to favourable genetic gains for both milk and fertility related traits. In this situation CMF introduced in current study can be used to overcome to limitations of selection index and CMF could be useful for countries that have problems in recording traits, especially functional traits.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.466-469
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• 2002

The data on 512 Hariana cows, progeny of 20 sires calved during period from 1974 to 1993 maintained at Government Livestock Farm, Hisar were considered for the estimation of genetic parameters. The means for first lactation milk yield (FLY), wet average (WA), first lactation peak yield (FPY), first lactation milk yield per day of first calving interval (MCI) and first lactation milk yield per day of age at second calving (MSC) were 1,141.58 kg, 4.19 kg/day, 6.24 kg/day, 2.38 kg/day and 0.601 kg/day, respectively. The effect of period of calving was significant (p<0.05) on WA, FPY and MCI while the effect of season of calving was significant only on WA. Monsoon calvers excelled in performance for all the production efficiency traits. The effect of age at first calving (linear) was significant on all the traits except on MCI. Estimates of heritabilty for all the traits were moderate and ranged from 0.255 to 0.333 except for WA (0.161). All the genetic and phenotypic correlations among different production efficiency traits were high and positive. It may be inferred that selection on the basis of peak yield will be more effective as the trait is expressed early in life and had reasonably moderate estimate of heritability.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.1693-1702
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• 2009

Economic values of 14 production and functional traits for two Slovak dairy sheep breeds (Improved Valachian and Tsigai) were calculated. Semi-extensive production systems with one lambing per year were simulated using a bio-economic deterministic computer model. The marginal economic value of a trait was defined as the partial derivative of the profit function with respect to that trait. The relative economic value expressed the percentage proportion of standardized economic value (marginal economic value${\times}$genetic standard deviation) of a trait in the sum of the absolute values of the standardized economic values over all traits. Milk yield was of highest relative importance (26% and 32% in Improved Valachian and Tsigai) followed by productive lifetime and conception rate of ewes (16% and 15% in Improved Valachian and Tsigai, in both traits). Conception rate of female lambs and litter size had nearly the same relative economic importance in both breeds (9% to 11%). Survival rate of lambs at lambing and till weaning reached slightly lower economic values (4% to 7%). The economic importance of all remaining traits was less than 4%.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.961-966
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• 2008

Direct and maternal genetic parameters for production traits in 1,642 pigs and maternal genetic correlations among production (1,642 pigs) and feed efficiency (380 boars) traits were estimated in 7 generations of a Duroc population. Traits studied were daily gain (DG), intramuscular fat (IMF), loineye area (LEA), backfat thickness (BF), daily feed intake (FI), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and residual feed intake (RFI). The RFI was calculated as the difference between actual and predicted feed intake. The predicted feed intake was estimated by adjusting the initial test weight, DG and BF. Data for production traits were analyzed using four alternative animal models (including direct, direct+maternal permanent environmental, or direct+maternal genetic+maternal permanent environmental effects). Direct heritability estimates from the model including direct and all maternal effects were $0.41{\pm}0.04$ for DG, $0.27{\pm}0.04$ for IMF, $0.52{\pm}0.06$ for LEA and $0.64{\pm}0.04$ for BF. Estimated maternal heritabilities ranged from $0.04{\pm}0.04$ to $0.15{\pm}0.05$ for production traits. Antagonistic relationships were observed between direct and maternal genetic effects ($r_{am}$) for LEA (-0.21). Maternal genetic correlations of feed efficiency traits with FI ($r_g$ of FI with FCR and RFI were $0.73{\pm}0.06$ and $0.90{\pm}0.05$, respectively) and LEA (rg of LEA with FCR and RFI were $-0.48{\pm}0.05$ to $-0.61{\pm}0.05$, respectively) were favorable. The estimated moderate genetic correlations between direct and maternal genetic effects for IMF and LEA indicated that maternal effects has an important role in these traits, and should be accounted for in the genetic evaluation system.