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Genetic parameters for reproduction in ostriches

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Abstract

Between 1212 and 1487 hen-year reproduction records of a pair-bred ostrich flock were recorded from 1991 to 2003. These data were used to estimate (co)variances between reproduction traits. Egg (EP) and chick production (CP) were highly variable and moderately heritable (h² > 0.25). Hatched eggs as a percentage of EP (HATCH%) was lowly heritable (h² = 0.05), but depended strongly on the female permanent environment (c² = 0.24) and service sire (ss² = 0.19) effects. Average chick weight (ACW) was highly heritable (h² = 0.71) with a small contribution from the service sire (ss² = 0.08). Genetic correlations (ra) between reproductive traits were generally favourable, and effectively unity between EP and CP. CP was unrelated genetically to ACW (ra: -0.01). Correlations between service sire effects (rss) were low between HATCH% and EP but high with CP (rss: -0.01 vs 0.81).
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics
EditorsAAABG: Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding, Genetics
Place of PublicationCollingwood, Australia
Pages132-135
Volume16
Publication statusPublished - 2005
EventAAABG 2005: 16th Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics - Noosa Lakes, Australia
Duration: 25 Sept 200528 Sept 2005

Conference

ConferenceAAABG 2005: 16th Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics
CityNoosa Lakes, Australia
Period25/09/0528/09/05

Keywords

  • Animal Breeding

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