Abstract
The present study aimed to apply artificial neural networks to predict the breeding values of body weight in 6-month age of Kermani sheep. For this purpose, records of 867 lambs including lamb sex, dam age, birth weight, weaning weight, age at 3-month (3 months old), age at 6-month (6 months old) and body weight at 3 months of age were used. Firstly, genetic parameters of the animals were estimated using ASReml software. The data was then pre-processed for using in MATLAB software. After initial experiments on the appropriate neural network architecture for body weight at 6-month age, two networks were examined. A feed-forward backpropagation multilayer perceptron (MLP) algorithm was used and 70% of all data used as training data, 15% as testing data and 15% as validating data, to prevent over-fitting of the artificial neural network. Results showed that the both networks capable to predict breeding values for body weight at 6 month-age in Kermani sheep. It can be concluded that artificial neural network has a good ability to predict growth traits in Kermani sheep with an acceptable speed and accuracy. Therefore, this network, instead of commonly-used procedures can be used to estimate the breeding values for productive and reproductive traits in domestic animals.
Highlights
There are 26 sheep breeds in Iran, each having been adapted to a certain region (Khodabakhshzadeh et al, 2016; Zamani, Akhondi, & Mohammadabadi, 2015)
The neural network was trained using trainlm training function. This network consisted of seven input variables including sex, dam age, birth weight, body weight at 3 months of age, 3 months of age, body weight at 6 months of age and 6 months of age, as well as an output which was the breeding values for body weight at 6 months of age
The results showed that the multilayer perceptron with seven input variables and seven neurons in the hidden layer, and a correlation coefficient of 0.703, as well as the multilayer perceptron with nine input variables and seven neurons in the hidden layer, and a correlation coefficient of 0.864 are both capable of predicting the breeding values for body weight at 6month age in Kermani sheep
Summary
There are 26 sheep breeds in Iran, each having been adapted to a certain region (Khodabakhshzadeh et al, 2016; Zamani, Akhondi, & Mohammadabadi, 2015). It is well adapted to the harsh and undesirable environmental conditions of the southeastern part of Iran which mainly has hot and dry climate, as well as poor pastures and low vegetation cover. This breed is a dual-purpose fat-tailed sheep (meat and wool) which is medium-sized and has white wool (Mohammadabadi & Sattayimokhtari, 2013). This sheep provides many needs of nomads and breeders in Kerman province. Attention to the breeding of this livestock improvement of its environmental condition and genetic parameters of Kermani sheep has contributed greatly to providing for part of needs to livestock (Kargar, Moradishahrbabak, Moravej, & Rokuei, 2006)
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