Genetic Analysis of Growth and Cashmere Traits of Goat in Southern Khorasan Province

A total of 1256 records associated with body weight and Cashmere at different ages (birth and 3 and 9 months) obtained from 754 Cashmere goats were used to estimate the genetic parameters in southern Khorasan province during 2000- 2003. A set of univariate animal models including additive and maternal genetic effects and maternal permanent environmental effects as well as the fixed effects of year and month of birth, sex, birth type and dam age (linear and quadratic covariates) and kid age (linear and quadratic covariates) was fitted. Co/variance components were estimated by restricted maximum likelihood procedure using Powel algorithm in DFREML software. For the body weight at 0, 3 and 9 months, models two, one and three were recognized as the appropriate models. For these models, direct heritability estimates were found to be 0.09, 0.11 and 0.09, respectively. For birth weight and weight at month 9, the magnitude of c2 and h2m were 0.18 and 0.00, respectively. For average daily gains during 0-3 and 3-9 months of age, direct heritability based on the model one was 0.16 and 0.05, respectively. Direct heritability of Cashmere was found to be 0.02. Applying repeatability model, the estimates of heritability and repeatability of Cashmere were 0.16 and 0.53, respectively. Genetic trends for birth weight (0.0175kg/year) and weight at month 9 (0.02065kg/year) were positive and non-significant. A negative non-significant statistical genetic trend (-0.00537kg/year) was found for Cashmere during the period of time.