Abstract
The objective of this work was to estimate genetic parameters and evaluate genetic trends over 26 years for morphometric traits in Mangalarga Marchador horses. Twelve morphometric traits were evaluated (withers and croup heights; length of head, body, shoulder, croup, neck, back, and loins; width of head and croup, and cannon bone and thorax perimeters). These traits were evaluated in 38,341 animals born between 1987 and 2012 and with a relationship matrix of 77,719 animals. Gibbs sampler was used to [...]
Highlights
Brazil has the fourth largest horse herd in the world, with approximately 5.5 million animals (Gilbert et al, 2018)
The estimated heritabilities for all morphometric traits evaluated in Mangalarga Marchador horses ranged from moderate to high magnitude (Table 3), with a posteriori means varying from 0.27 for cannon bone perimeter (CBP) to 0.48 for croup height (CH)
The slope values are highly influenced by the scale of the trait, and no comparison can be made about the magnitude of changes between different traits
Summary
Brazil has the fourth largest horse herd in the world, with approximately 5.5 million animals (Gilbert et al, 2018). Mangalarga Marchador is the most representative breed, with approximately 600,000 live animals (Lima and Cintra, 2016). The equideoculture sector generates over 16 billion reais a year in Brazil, generating direct and indirect jobs for about three million people (Lima and Cintra, 2016). Horses have large participation in the agribusiness in Brazil, being their main contribution related to the daily management in the rural properties, and their traits related to the locomotion are important – being the gait the more commonly studied. Besides the association with gait, the economic value of horses is commonly associated to how close to the breed standard conformation, determined by the association of breeders, the horse is.
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