Estimates of Phenotypic and Genetic Parameters for Ewe Productivity Traits of Turkish Merino (Karacabey Merino) Sheep

Authors : Bülent EKİZ, Mustafa ÖZCAN, Alper YILMAZ

Pages : 557-564

View : 14 | Download : 7

Publication Date : 0000-00-00

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :The aims of the study were to investigate the fixed effects which are considered to influence ewe productivity and to estimate the genetic parameters for ewe productivity traits of Turkish Merino insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(Karacabey Merino); sheep. Genetic parameters were estimated by REML procedure using the DFREML program. The effects of year and age of ewe were significant for fertility, litter size at birth insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(LSB);, litter size at weaning insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(LSW);, litter weight at birth insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(LWB); and litter weight at weaning insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(LWW);. The least squares means of fertility, LSB, LSW, LWB and LWW were 0.904, 1.422, 1.358, 6.689 kg and 41.577 kg, respectively. The means of total number of lambs born insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(TLB);, total number of lambs weaned insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(TLW);, total birth weight of lambs insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(TWB); and total weight of lambs weaned insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(TWW); per ewe over four lambing opportunities were 5.48, 5.25, 25.61 kg and 162.47 kg, respectively. Estimates of heritability for fertility, LSB, LSW, LWB and LWW were 0.0250, 0.0533, 0.0430, 0.0462 and 0.0255, respectively; and estimates of repeatability for these traits were 0.1242, 0.0787, 0.0772, 0.0882 and 0.0715, respectively. The low estimates of heritability and repeatability obtained in the current study for ewe productivity traits indicate that selection based on the ewe’s own performance may result in slow genetic improvement.
Keywords : Turkish Merino, ewe productivity, heritability, repeatability