EJPAU 2006. Cholewa R. , Pawliczak-Maj K. , Szwaczkowski T. GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ON BODY WEIGHT AND FUR HIGHT IN NUTRIA (<I>MYOCASTOR COYPUS </I>L.)

Electronic Journal of Polish Agricultural Universities (EJPAU) founded by all Polish Agriculture Universities presents original papers and review articles relevant to all aspects of agricultural sciences. It is target for persons working both in science and industry,regulatory agencies or teaching in agricultural sector. Covered by IFIS Publishing (Food Science and Technology Abstracts), ELSEVIER Science - Food Science and Technology Program, CAS USA (Chemical Abstracts), CABI Publishing UK and ALPSP (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publisher - full membership). Presented in the Master List of Thomson ISI.

2006
Volume 9
Issue 2

Topic:

Animal Husbandry

ELECTRONIC
JOURNAL OF
POLISH
AGRICULTURAL
UNIVERSITIES

Cholewa R. , Pawliczak-Maj K. , Szwaczkowski T. 2006. GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ON BODY WEIGHT AND FUR HIGHT IN NUTRIA (MYOCASTOR COYPUS L.), EJPAU 9(2), #24.
Available Online: http://www.ejpau.media.pl/volume9/issue2/abs-24.html

GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ON BODY WEIGHT AND FUR HIGHT IN NUTRIA (MYOCASTOR COYPUS L.)

Ryszard Cholewa¹, Kinga Pawliczak-Maj¹, Tomasz Szwaczkowski²
¹ Department of Fur Animal Breeding, August Cieszkowski Agricultural University of Poznan, Poland
² Department of Genetics and Animal Breeding, August Cieszkowski Agricultural University of Poznan, Poland

ABSTRACT

The objectives of the study were to estimate chosen effects (sex, color variety, farm and partitution) on body weight and hair layer hight characters as well as correlations between these traits. Furthemore, heritabilities of traits studied were also estimated. The research was carried on three reproductive farms keeping animals in four basic coat varieties: standard, Sapphire blue, Greenland and white. In the experimental group 919 young nutrias were included and the following steps were executed:

– body weight was measured,

– hight of underfur and guard hairs.

Estimation of heritability was based on unitrait animal model. Standard errors of heritability estimates were approximated based on second order polynomials. The package program DFREML was employed. Correlation coefficients were estimated in the SAS system. Heritability estimates of hair traits were high. The highest estimate (h² = 0.623) was obtained for lateral guard hairs height. The estimates of other three traits were slightly lower and ranged from 0.49 (lateral underfur) to 0.58 (dorsal underfur). Higher heritability was estimated for fur characters than for body weight. Linear correlations were estimated between all traits. Some of the estimates were close to zero. The highest correlation was recorded for the height of the same hair types.

Key words: genetic effects, nutria, traits.

Ryszard Cholewa
Department of Fur Animal Breeding,
August Cieszkowski Agricultural University of Poznan, Poland
Wołynska 33, 60-637 Poznan, Poland
email: cholewar @jay.au.poznan.pl

Kinga Pawliczak-Maj
Department of Fur Animal Breeding,
August Cieszkowski Agricultural University of Poznan, Poland
Wołynska 33, 60-637 Poznan, Poland

Tomasz Szwaczkowski
Department of Genetics and Animal Breeding,
August Cieszkowski Agricultural University of Poznan, Poland
Wołynska 33, 60-637 Poznan, Poland
email: tomasz @jay.au.poznan.pl

Responses to this article, comments are invited and should be submitted within three months of the publication of the article. If accepted for publication, they will be published in the chapter headed 'Discussions' and hyperlinked to the article.