Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Animal, Poultry and Fish Production department, Faculty of Agriculture, Damietta University, Egypt
2
Department of Buffalo Breeding Research-Animal Production Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Dokki, Egypt
3
The Center for Excellence in Research of Advanced Agricultural Sciences (CERAAS), Faculty of Agriculture, Damietta University, Damietta, Egypt
4
Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Suez Canal University, 41522, Ismailia, Egypt
Abstract
This study aimed to determine the effects of some environmental factors on reproductive traits, as well as to estimate genetic parameters for age at first calving (AFC, months), number of Services per conception (NSC, count), Days open (DO, days), Gestation length (GL, days), and Calving interval (CI, days). Data were collected from 27 years and included 2,737 records of Egyptian buffaloes maintained at the Mahallet Mousa farms, affiliated to Animal Production Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Egypt. Data were analyzed using General Linear Model (GLM) procedure in SAS (2002) to assess significant fixed effects, and an animal model was applied to estimate genetic parameters and breeding values. The mean values for AFC, NSC, DO, GL, and CI were 36.69 months, 1.92 services, 128.10 days, 317.90 days, and 446.01 days, respectively. The estimated heritability (h²) for the aforementioned traits was 0.27, 0.15, 0.18, 0.09, and 0.16. Correspondingly, genetic correlations (rg) and phenotypic correlations (rp) among studied traits ranged from 0.07 to 0.96 and 0.08 to 0.68, respectively. The accuracy of predicted breeding values was ranged from 57% to 86% for sires, 63% to 97% for cows, and 62% to 92% for dams. These results indicate that genetic improvement of reproductive traits can be effectively achieved through selection based on buffalo cows, sires, or dams. This study highlights the necessity of ameliorating environmental conditions and management practices, along with implementing a structured genetic improvement strategy to boost reproductive efficiency, increase productivity, and achieve high profitability.
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