Genetic variability in the body weight of Sudan desert goats

Abstract

Data on 586 kids from 30 bucks and 120 does of Sudan desert goats was used in the present study. The study aimed at investigating the genetic variations of body weight at various ages. Range of heritability estimates for body weight from birth to 6th month was 0.04-0.54. The estimates from dam component ranged 0.28-0.68 which was higher than that from sire component estimates. The genetic correlations for body weight at various ages were substantially high, ranged from 0.51-0.99 as sire, dam and dam nested in sire components. Phenotypic correlations of body weight at various ages ranged from 0.43-0.99 with differences being significant (P<0.01). Low to high environmental correlations (0.10-0.33) were encountered as dam component. However, the random effect of sire was found to be significantly (P<0.01) positively correlated. Keywords

Genetic Parameters for Growth Traits of Malya Goats and Heterosis from Crossbreds of Malya and Sukuma Goats

“…The value is comparable to 0.22 estimated for Boer goats, 0.28 estimated for Black Bengal goats and 0.26 estimated for Ardi goats by [24], [5] and [19], respectively. The current estimate is higher than 0.16 estimated by [12] for Kenya Dual Purpose goats, 0.18 estimated by [25] for Toggenburg goats in Kenya, 0.04 observed by [23] for indigenous Nigeria goats, 0.18 shown by [26] for Adani goats and 0.06 observed by [27] for Sudan desert goats. However, it was also lower than 0.4 estimated for SEA goats by [11], 0.04 estimated by [28] for Sudanese Nubian goats and 0.35 estimated by [19] for Damascus goats.…”