Academic Journal

Genetic parameter analysis of bareness and tail traits in New Zealand sheep

التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
العنوان: Genetic parameter analysis of bareness and tail traits in New Zealand sheep
المؤلفون: Johnson, Patricia L, Scobie, David R, Dodds, Ken G, Powdrell, Sarah-Jane H, Rowe, Suzanne J, McRae, Kathryn M
المصدر: Journal of Animal Science ; volume 101 ; ISSN 0021-8812 1525-3163
بيانات النشر: Oxford University Press (OUP)
سنة النشر: 2023
الوصف: Physical traits that improve welfare and disease outcomes for sheep are becoming increasingly important due to both increased climate challenges and societal expectations. Such traits include tail length, the amount of skin (vs. wool) on the underside of the tail, and the area of no-wool (hair) on the belly and breech areas (surrounding the anus) of the animal. An industry dataset consisting of records from individual stud breeders and industry progeny tests was available to estimate the genetic parameters associated with these traits and to investigate the potential for within-breed genetic selection. The heritability estimate for tail length was 0.68 ± 0.01 when breed was not fitted, and 0.63 ± 0.01 when breed was fitted. Similar trends were observed for breech and belly bareness which had heritability estimates around 0.50 (± 0.01). The estimates for these bareness traits are both higher than previous reports from animals of the same age. There was, however, between breed variation in the starting point for these traits, with some breeds having significantly longer tails and a wooly breech and belly, and limited variability. Overall, the results of this study show that flocks exhibiting some variation will be able to make rapid genetic progress in selecting for bareness and tail length traits, and therefore have the potential to make progress towards a sheep that is easier to look after and suffers fewer welfare insults. For those breeds that showed limited within-breed variation, outcrossing may be required to introduce genotypes that exhibit shorter tail length and bareness of belly and breech to increase the rate of genetic gain. Whatever approach is taken by the industry, these results support that genetic improvement can be used to breed “ethically improved sheep”.
نوع الوثيقة: article in journal/newspaper
اللغة: English
DOI: 10.1093/jas/skad161
DOI: 10.1093/jas/skad161/50435923/skad161.pdf
DOI: 10.1093/jas/skad161/50512558/skad161.pdf
الاتاحة: https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skad161
https://academic.oup.com/jas/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/jas/skad161/50435923/skad161.pdf
https://academic.oup.com/jas/article-pdf/doi/10.1093/jas/skad161/50512558/skad161.pdf
Rights: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
رقم الانضمام: edsbas.CCD515FA
قاعدة البيانات: BASE