Study of genetic parameters for pre-weaning growth traits in inner Mongolia white Arbas cashmere goats

Ruijun Wang; Yan Liu; Yue Shi; Yunpeng Qi; Yanbo Li; Zhiying Wang; Yanjun Zhang; Yanhong Zhao; Rui Su; Jinquan Li

doi:10.3389/fvets.2022.1026528

Study of genetic parameters for pre-weaning growth traits in inner Mongolia white Arbas cashmere goats

Front Vet Sci. 2023 Jan 10:9:1026528. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.1026528. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Ruijun Wang¹, Yan Liu², Yue Shi¹, Yunpeng Qi¹, Yanbo Li¹, Zhiying Wang¹, Yanjun Zhang¹, Yanhong Zhao¹, Rui Su¹, Jinquan Li¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China.
² College of Vocational and Technical, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China.

Abstract

Inner Mongolia Arbas white cashmere goats is a dual-purpose breed for producing cashmere and meat. In recent years, its meat has become more and more popular among consumers because of rich nutrients and delicious flavor. Therefore, it is particularly important to study the genetic and non-genetic factors affecting the early growth traits and estimate variance components of pre-weaning growth traits of Inner Mongolia Albas white cashmere goats. A total of 37487 kidding records such as birth weight (BWT), weaning weight (WWT), average daily gain from birth to weaning (ADG) and Kleiber ratio (KR) from 343 sires and 7296 dams were used in this study. The most appropriate model was chosen on the basis of likelihood ratio test by fitting six models which excluding or including maternal genetic, maternal permanent environmental effects. The parameters were estimated under the most appropriate model using AIREML method by WOMBAT software. With the best model (Model 6), heritability estimates were 0.0435, 0.0911, 0.0932 and 0.2339 for BWT, WWT, ADG and KR traits, respectively. Maternal heritability estimates were 0.0143, 0.0246, 0.0220 and 0.0186 for BWT, WWT, ADG, and KR traits respectively. The correlation between different traits was estimated with the most suitable model by using bivariate analysis method. The direct additive genetic correlation among the traits ranged from -0.026 (BWT~KR) to 0.772 (ADG~KR). The maternal permanent environment correlation is between -0.289 (BWT-KR) ~0.900 (WWT-ADG). Results indicated that maternal effects and direct-maternal genetic covariance should be considered in any program aimed at improving pre-weaning growth traits to have an accurate genetic evaluation. In addition, positive and medium to high genetic correlations generally exist among WWT, ADG and KR due to the existence of genetic variation for early growth traits. The results showed that the genetic progress of these traits could be slowly through selection except for KR.

Keywords: fixed effects; genetic parameters; inner Mongolia cashmere goats; pre-weaning growth traits; variance components.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Plan Project of Science and Technology in Inner Mongolia (2020GG0031 and 2021GG0086) and by the Program for Innovative Research Team in Universities of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (NMGIRT2322).