Genetic parameters of fertility and production traits in Murrah buffaloes

Abstract

Data of 522 Murrah buffaloes sired by 72 bulls scattered over a period of 19 years (1993 to 2011) maintained at National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal were edited to records of 404 buffaloes upto fourth lactation for estimating the genetic parameters of fertility and production traits. Fertility was defined in terms of pregnancy rate (PR), while production traits included Test Day Five Milk Yield (TD 5MY), 305 Days or less Milk Yield (MY) and 305 days or less Wet Average (WA). The heritability of PR, TD 5 MY, MY and WA were estimated as 0.02 ± 0.005, 0.12 ± 0.04, 0.17± 0.04 and 0.15 ± 0.03. The repeatability of PR, TD 5 MY, MY and WA were estimated as 0.09 ± 0.04, 0.18 ± 0.05, 0.27 ± 0.04 and 0.26 ± 0.04. The pregnancy rate had low negative phenotypic correlations with TD 5 MY (−0.09 ± 0.03), MY (−0.08 ± 0.04) and WA (−0.12 ± 0.02). The magnitudes of phenotypic correlation indicated that Murrah buffaloes have good fertility and is not declining sharply with the increasing of milk production in the herd. Better breeding management should be maintained for sustaining reproduction and production efficiency.