Abstract
A study was conducted to assess the genetic potential of Mecheri sheep under farmers’ field conditions and to identify the non-genetic factors affecting growth traits. The data on body weights of 2202 Mecheri lambs (1153 males and 1049 females) reared under farmers’ field in 70 flocks in 10 hamlets/villages in Salem and Karur districts of Tamil Nadu were collected for a period of 10 years (2011 to 2020). The effects of non-genetic factors (year of birth, season of birth, sex, parity, location, and weight of dam at lambing) on live weight, average daily gain and Kleiber ratio (KR) at various stages of growth were analyzed using general linear model. The overall least-squares means for body weights at birth, weaning, 6 months, 9 months and 12 months of age were 2.41±0.01,10.59±0.08, 13.97±0.10, 16.97±0.11 and 20.20±0.13 kg, respectively. The average daily gain during0-3, 3–6 and 6–12 months of age were 90.78±0.83, 37.53±0.78 and 32.59±0.50 g, respectively. Theleast-squares means for KR for 0–3, 3–6 and 6–12 months of age were 15.25±0.06, 5.10±0.10 and3.37±0.04, respectively. Among the non-genetic factors, year and season of birth, sex of lamb anddam's weight at lambing had very important role in the growth of the Mecherilambs atdifferentstages, necessitatingcorrection of records to increasetheaccuracyofselection.
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