Philippine E-Journals

Variance Component Estimation of Some Production Traits of American Brahman Cattle (Bos Indicus L.) Raised in the Philippines

Agapita J. Salces | Orville L. Bondoc | Angel L. Lambio | Enrico P. Supangco | R P. Laude | M V. Perilla

Discipline: Veterinary Medicine, Animal Science

 

Abstract:

Phenotypic and genetic parameters were estimated using the data from American Brahman cattle (4,497 calves born from 266 sires and 1,311 dams) at ANSA Genetics, Inc., Lipa City, Batangas, Philippines from 1968 to 1999 for traits birth weight (BW), pre-weaning average daily gain (PRADG), pre-weaning gain (PRGAIN) and adjusted 210-day weaning weight (ADWW). The mean BW was 28.75 kg ± 3.17 kg, PRADG was 0.60 kg/day ± 0.13 kg/day, PRGAIN was 125.76 kg ± 28.43 kg and ADWW was 154.56 kg ± 29.28 kg. The phenotypic correlation was 0.22 between BW-PRADG while 0.32 for BW-ADWW. Genetic parameters were analyzed by Mixed Model Methodology - Animal Model using Derivative Free Restricted Maximum Likelihood (DFREML) for traits BW, PRADG and ADWW. The direct additive heritability estimates were as follows: BW = 0.44, PRADG = 0.26 and ADWW = 0.29 while maternal heritability were: BW = 0.02 and 0.10 for both PRADG and ADWW. The genetic correlations were 0.57 for BW-PRADG = 0.02 and 0.21 for BW-ADWW. Meanwhile, the maternal genetic correlation for BW-PRADG was 0.12 and 0.15 for BW -ADWW.