Estimation of genetic parameters of production and reproduction traits, inbreeding trend and its effects on economic traits of native fowls in Fars Province

In this study, performance and pedigree records of the native fowls of Fars province collected by Breeding Center during 1990-2004 were analyzed. A pedigree file collected on 30855 female and male birds was used to calculate the inbreeding coefficients. Heritability and Genetic and phenotypic correlations between recorded traits including body weight at 12 weeks (BW12), egg number (EN), egg weight (EW) and age sexual maturity (ASM) were estimated by multivariate animal model procedure by restricted maximum likelihood using ASREML software. On the other hand, The Inbreeding coefficient has been considered as a covariate to estimate its effects on traits. Results showed that inbreeding has not significant effects on recorded traits. The average of inbreeding coefficient for all birds were 0.002%, ranged from 0 to 14.8%. In this population, 14% of the birds were inbred, and average inbreeding coefficient for inbred birds was 0.019%. Estimated heritabilities were 0.53, 0.47, 0.57 and 0.22 for body weight at 12 weeks (BW12), age of sexual maturity (ASM), egg weight (EW) and egg number (EN), respectively. Due to relatively high heritability and low inbreeding coefficient of productive and reproductive traits, it is possible to achieve more progress in these traits using appropriate genetic selection.