TY - JOUR
T1 - Genetic variances and covariances of live weight traits in Charolais cattle by multi-trait analysis
AU - Herrera-Ojeda, J. B.
AU - Parra-Bracamonte, G. M.
AU - Lopez-Villalobos, N.
AU - Martínez-González, J. C.
AU - Magaña-Monforte, J. G.
AU - Morris, S. T.
AU - López-Bustamante, L. A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Institute of Plant Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan.
PY - 2019/11/1
Y1 - 2019/11/1
N2 - Live weight traits are economically important for beef cattle production systems. Genetic analysis of live weight traits frequently presents a problem due to animal records, in that matter, not all the animals have complete records as many young animals leave the herd because of sale, transfer to another herd, or culling reasons. Therefore, the use of multi-trait genetic analysis might be of assistance to help overcome any possible loss of information for those animals with incomplete records. In this study, genetic variances and covariances were obtained to estimate genetic parameters for birth (BW), weaning (WW), and yearling (YW) live weights in a registered Charolais beef cattle population using a multivariate model, where a considerable reduction of data from birth weight to year weight was observed. Direct and maternal heritabilities for BW, WW, and YW were 0.50, 0.30, and 0.28, and 0.31, 0.25, and 0.14, respectively. Direct and maternal genetic correlations were negative in all live weight traits. Genetic correlations among direct BW with direct WW and YW were low, while genetic correlations among maternal traits were medium or high (r>0.39). Comparison between univariate and multi-trait models with substantial reduction of information revealed important differences, implying that multi-trait analysis is better for the structure of data allowing a better fitting of genetic effects by covariance among evaluated traits. Results support multi-trait analysis implementation for genetic evaluations for live weight traits of Charolais cattle.
AB - Live weight traits are economically important for beef cattle production systems. Genetic analysis of live weight traits frequently presents a problem due to animal records, in that matter, not all the animals have complete records as many young animals leave the herd because of sale, transfer to another herd, or culling reasons. Therefore, the use of multi-trait genetic analysis might be of assistance to help overcome any possible loss of information for those animals with incomplete records. In this study, genetic variances and covariances were obtained to estimate genetic parameters for birth (BW), weaning (WW), and yearling (YW) live weights in a registered Charolais beef cattle population using a multivariate model, where a considerable reduction of data from birth weight to year weight was observed. Direct and maternal heritabilities for BW, WW, and YW were 0.50, 0.30, and 0.28, and 0.31, 0.25, and 0.14, respectively. Direct and maternal genetic correlations were negative in all live weight traits. Genetic correlations among direct BW with direct WW and YW were low, while genetic correlations among maternal traits were medium or high (r>0.39). Comparison between univariate and multi-trait models with substantial reduction of information revealed important differences, implying that multi-trait analysis is better for the structure of data allowing a better fitting of genetic effects by covariance among evaluated traits. Results support multi-trait analysis implementation for genetic evaluations for live weight traits of Charolais cattle.
KW - Beef cattle
KW - Genetic correlation
KW - Genetic parameters
KW - Growth
KW - Heritability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85070751241&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s13353-019-00515-w
DO - 10.1007/s13353-019-00515-w
M3 - Artículo
C2 - 31407218
SN - 1234-1983
VL - 60
SP - 385
EP - 391
JO - Journal of Applied Genetics
JF - Journal of Applied Genetics
IS - 3-4
ER -