Genetic Analysis of Growth Traits and Kleiber Ratios in Mgohani Sheep

In order to estimate the genetic parameters and heritabilities of growth traits and Kleiber ratios in Moghani sheep, data collected in Jafarabad-e-Moghan station from 1994 to 2016 were used. Investigated traits including birth weight, average daily gains and Kleiber ratios during four time periods that is birth to 3 months, 3 t 6 months, 6 to 9 months and 9 to 12 months first analyzed by SAS 9.2 software to indicate the significant fixed effects, finally, 6 animal models running by Wombat software was used to estimate the genetic parameters and heritabilities. The heritability of birth weight (0.31), Average daily gain and Kleiber ratio from birth to 3 months and from 3 to 6 months (0.34, 0.36, 0.40 and 0.38 respectively) were medium to high. The maternal heritabilities and the ratios of maternal permanent environmental variance to the total variance were in the range of 0 to 4 percent and 0 to 2 percent respectively. The genetic trend for birth weight, Average daily gains and Kleiber ratios during four time periods were 0.13, 0.21, 0.27, -0.0000014, 0.01, 0.01, -0.0002 and 0.00004 respectively. These results indicated the relative efficiency of breeding programs for the average daily gains and Kleiber ratios during birth to 3 months and 3 to 6 months in Moghani sheep.