Genetic evaluation of some reproductive traits of commercial Friesian cattle under Egyptian conditions

Document Type : Research article

Authors

1 Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Assiut 71524, Egypt

2 Animal Production Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Dokki, Giza, Egypt

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of some of genetic and non-genetic parameters on the reproductive traits of Friesian cows. The data were obtained from a commercial farm (Gharbawy farm) located in El-Sharkia governorate, Egypt. A total of 1630 records of 465 pure Friesian cows covered the period from 1998 to 2007 were collected. The data values of reproductive traits which include; days open (DO), calving interval (CI) and dry period (DP) were measured.  The actual means of DO, CI and DP were 140.47, 432.76 and 93.57days, respectively. Parity, year and season of calving had a significance effect (p≤0.01) on all studied traits. Estimates of direct heritability (h2) for all studied traits were low, with equal h2a values (0.02) for both DO and DP, it was 0.04 for CI. Concerningmaternal permanent environment, effects were low ranging from 0.0003 to 0.01.  Moreover, error variance effects represent the largest proportion of the total variation ranging from 0.96 to 0.98. All coefficients were positive for phenotypic correlations and ranged from 0.388 to 0.746. Moreover, the coefficients of genetic correlations among all studied reproductive traits were positive and ranged from 0.230 to 0.492. Non-genetic factors have a strong influence on the herd under study, which requires the stability of technical and administrative processes to improve reproductive performance. Moreover, additional assessment studies required to improve the accuracy of information to increase productivity of such herds.

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Archives of Agriculture Sciences Journal
Volume 5, Issue 2
August 2022
Pages 72-81

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