Genetic studies on body measurements and performance traits in Harnali sheep”
Abstract
The present investigation was undertaken to study linear body measurements and performance
traits on 349 adult and 94 young animals of Harnali sheep maintained in the Department of Animal
Genetics and Breeding, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar, Haryana. The
least squares means for Length (L), Height (H), Heart girth (HG), Paunch girth (PG), Tail length (TL),
Head circumference (HC), Ear length (EL), Ear width (EW) and Face length (FL) were estimated as
69.71±0.36, 68.99±0.22, 81.09±0.29, 84.58±0.50, 28.11±0.63, 46.12±0.26, 16.00±0.26, 8.57±0.13 and
20.27±0.12 cm, respectively. The least squares means for Birth weight (BW), Weaning weight (WW),
Six month body weight (SMW), One year body weight (YBW), Adult body weight (ABW), Age at first
lambing (AFL) and annual Grease fleece weight (GFW) were estimated as 3.51±0.58 kg, 13.61±0.22
kg, 19.45±0.24 kg, 27.26±0.31 kg, 37.90±0.34 kg, 1662.65±35.46 gm and 789.98±10.40 days,
respectively. The period of birth had significant (P<0.01) effect on all traits except HG, PG, TL, EL,
EW and GFW. The effect of sex was found significant on all linear body measurements and
performance traits except EL and EW. Dam’s age at lambing was found non-significant on all traits
under study. However, dam’s weight at lambing significantly (P<0.01) influenced all. Heritability
estimates for various body measurements and performance traits were moderate to high ranging from
0.30±0.13 to 0.76±18 indicating the scope of improvement in body dimensions and growth
performance of Harnali sheep. Genetic correlations among body measurement traits were low to high
in magnitude ranging from -0.01±0.15 to 0.76±0.06. The phenotypic correlations of WW and SMW
were significant and positive with BW, YBW and ABW with moderate to high in magnitude ranging
from 0.22±0.04 to 0.71±0.07. The genetic correlations among performance traits were low to high
ranging from -0.03±0.04 to 0.61±0.12.Veering around the heritability and genetic correlations among
performance traits it is infered that SMW can be a good selection criterion at early age as it has high
heritability (0.65±0.15) and positive and high correlations with other traits. The phenotypic correlations
among body measurements and performance traits were quite varying ranging from -0.01±0.01 to
0.59±0.08. The genetic correlations among body measurements and performance traits were low to
high ranging from -0.02± 0.14 to 0.51±0.13. Heart girth was the most important trait for estimation of
live body weight in sheep and the prediction equation obtain was: Body weight = - 63.72 + 1.23HG
with R2 = 0.87.