Department of Genetics and Animal Breeding, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar-263 145, Uttaranchal
Records of body weights and wool yield traits of 1313 lambs, the progeny of 106 sires and 134 baseline dams of Avikalin crossbred sheep were used to estimate the heritability and variance components. Traits analyzed were birth weight (BWT), weaning weight (WT-3), 6-month weight (WT-6), 12-month weight (WT-12) and first greasy fleece yield (GFY1). The estimate of habitability under model 2 and 8 of least squares analysis and univariate REML animal model were found to be 0.183, 0.170 and 0.168 for BWT, 0.259, 0.252 and 0.077 for WT-3, 0.365, 0.377 and 0.162 for WT-6, 0.445, 0.453 and 0.203 for WT-12 and 0.408, 0.412 and 0.107 for GFY1, respectively. Additive genetic variance was higher under model 2 of LSA than model 8 of LSA and univariate animal model. The univariate animal model estimated higher additive genetic variance than model 8 of LSA for all the five traits except BWT. Residual and phenotypic variances for all the three methods were almost similar and showed increasing trend with advancement of the age of animal.
Avikalin sheep, Body weight, Heritability, Wool yield
