Philippine E-Journals

Heritability and Correlation Estimates of Live Weight, Egg Number, Egg Weight and Egg Mass in Philippine Mallard Ducks (Anas Platyrhynchos Linn.)

D. Boonlert | Angel L. Lambio | Ninfa P. Roxas | Severino S. Capitan | A. A. Barrion

Discipline: Animal Science

 

Abstract:

A total of 283 head of Philippine Mallard ducks were obtained from 20 sires and 100 dams mated following a hierarchical design. Ducks were grown in confinement and then transferred to individual cages at 15 weeks of age. Commercial duck layer pellet was given ad libitum and fresh water was provided at all times. Live weight at 40 weeks old (BW40), egg production from laying of first egg up to 40 weeks of age (EN40) and egg weight (EW40) were collected individually. Egg mass (EM) was obtained by multiplying the number of eggs per bird by the mean egg weight. Results showed that the BW40, EN40, EW40, and EM were 1243 g, 66.8 pcs, 69.1 g and 4597 g/bird respectively. The heritabilities based on paternal half-sib correlation in BW40, EW40 and EM were 0.39, 0.332 and 0.316, respectively, but EN40 had low heritability (0.099). The heritabilities based on maternal full-sib were lower than paternal half-sib for BW40, EN40, EW40 and EM (0.274, 0.104, 0.226 and 0.385, respectively). The genetic correlations between BW40 and EW40 were positively correlated with each other (r_g=0.607). Positive correlation existed between BW40 and EM (r_g=0.516). The genetic correlations between EN40 and EM, and EW40 and EM were positive (r_g=0.15 and r_g=0.29, respectively). A small positive genetic correlation between BW40 and EN40 was found (r_g=O.059) but EN40 was negativelv related with EW40 (r_g =-O.259).