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The inheritance of fibre traits in a crossbred population of cashmere goats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

S. C. Bishop  and
A. J. F. Russel
S. C. Bishop
Affiliation:
Roslin Institute (Edinburgh), Midlothian EH25 9PS
A. J. F. Russel
Affiliation:
Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Hartwood Research Station, Shotts ML7 4JY
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Abstract

Genetic parameters were calculated for fibre traits measured on patch samples taken at 5 months of age on a crossbred population of cashmere goats, comprising goats of Scottish feral, Icelandic, Tasmanian, New Zealand and Siberian origin. Within-strain heritabilities, fitting genetic origin as a covariable, were: live weight, 0·71 (s.e. 0·08), fibre diameter, 0·63 (0·07), diameter standard deviation 0·43 (0·08), logipatch cashmere weight), 0·60 (0·06), log(estimated annual cashmere production), 0·51 (0·07), and fibre length, 0·49 (0·15). Including between strain information increased these values to 0·74, 0·68, 0·45, 0·73, 0·67 and 0·57, respectively. Maternal effects for all fibre traits were negligible. Expressions were derived to relate cashmere weight to fibre diameter and length, using functional relationships between these traits. Logarithmic regressions showed cashmere weight to be proportional to diameter2'7, indicating that selection to reducefibre diameter will have a disproportionate effect on cashmere weight. Analyses of subsets of the data confirmed this and showed that correlated responses to selection can be accurately predicted by considering thefunctionally relatedfibre traits on the log scale.

Keywords

cashmerefibre qualitygenetic parametersgoatsselection
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Science , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , December 1996 , pp. 429 - 436
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1996

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