Environmental Effects and Genetic Parameters for Growth Traits of Lohi Sheep

Simple Summary Animal breeders are always interested in improving the economically important traits such as growth by selecting and breeding genetically superior animals. The Lohi sheep is one of Pakistan's most important meat type breeds as it significantly contributes to the country's total mutton production. To fulfil the higher demands of mutton production, there is a need to define optimum breeding strategies for improving growth in this breed. This study reported the moderate heritabilities for growth traits in Lohi sheep and significant influences of sex, year of birth and type of birth on these traits. The results might be useful for designing a breeding program for higher mutton production in Lohi sheep. Estimating genetic parameters for growth traits is crucial to plan breeding strategies for improving meat production in indigenous sheep breeds. The study first tested the effects of environmental and maternal effects on five growth traits, including birth weight (BWT), weight at 120 days (WT120), weight at 180 days (WT180), weight at 270 days (WT270) and weight at 365 days of age (WT365) and then estimated genetic parameters for these traits using data obtained in 1215 Lohi sheep. The effects of factors, including year (YOB), season (SOB) and type of birth (TOB), age of dam (AOD) and sex on growth traits of Lohi sheep, were examined using analysis of variance (ANOVA) in R software. Sex, TOB and YOB significantly affected all studied traits. The estimates of direct and maternal heritability for BWT and WT120 were 0.15 +/- 0.08 and 0.20 +/- 0.06, and 0.45 +/- 0.16, 0.21 +/- 0.08, respectively. The direct heritability estimates for WT180, WT270 and WT365 were 0.20 +/- 0.07, 0.21 +/- 0.07 and 0.19 +/- 0.08, respectively. Due to the high heritability estimate obtained for WT120 compared to other studied traits, and its strong genetic correlation (>0.9) with post-weaning growth traits, it is recommended that selection must be practiced on WT120 to improve the growth performance of Lohi sheep. The results could be used for the development of genetic/genomic selection programs aiming to improve the production performance of the Lohi sheep.