Estimation of genetic parameters for body measurements and their association with yearling liveweight in the Makuie sheep breed

The main objective of this study was to estimate the genetic parameters for body measurement and yearling live bodyweight traits in the Makuie sheep breed. The data set consisted of 2 144 lambs from 122 sires and 984 dams recorded in 21 years from 1989 to 2009 at the Makuie Sheep Breeding and Raising Station (MSBS). The traits that were studied were height at withers, height at rump, body length, heart girth, leg circumference and yearling weight. The analyses were carried out based on an animal model with the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) approach using a derivate-free (DF) algorithm. Six animal models were fitted, differentiated by including or excluding maternal effects, and with and without covariance between maternal and direct genetic effects. Ignoring the maternal effects, the direct heritability was estimated as 0.20, 0.24, 0.10, 0.14, 0.02 and 0.36 for height at wither, height at rump, body length, heart girth, leg circumference and yearling weight, respectively. The estimates were slightly higher when maternal effects, genetic or environmental, were ignored in the analyses. Using bivariate analysis, the estimates for additive genetic correlations ranged from 0.56 to 0.81 among the studied traits. A log-likelihood ratio test (LRT) was used to select the most appropriate univariate model for each trait. Based on LRT, the direct additive genetic and maternal permanent environmental effects were regarded as an important source of variation of the studied traits. The estimates of genetic parameters can be considered a basis for calculating selection indices for body measurements, as well as revealing their association with yearling bodyweight traits.Keywords: (Co) variance components; direct and maternal effects; heritability