Heritabilities of linear traits of the limousin sire candidates in hungary

الملخص EN

The aim of this study was to estimate the effects of environmental factors on 16 type traits and estimate heritabilities of the traits and their phenotypic correlations with the total phenotypic score.

Type scores of 782 animals were collected in one Limousin seedstock herd sired by 27 bulls between years 1992 and 2005.

Sire candidates of 12 months old were officially qualified at the end of the performance test.

Year of birth affected all tested traits (P<0.001), month of birth affected most of the traits (P<0.05).

Very strong correlations (from 0.84 to 0.91, P<0.001) were observed between total phenotypic score and the 16 linear traits.

Heritabilities were very low for shoulder stability, strength of back and rump and muscularity of shoulder.

The highest h2 was calculated for loin width (0.32).

The results indicate that it is possible to integrate linear traits into the Hungarian animal model to estimate the breeding values of Limousin sire candidates in Hungary.