Sire-maternal Grandsire Model and Sire Model in Estimation of Genetic Parameters for Average Daily Gain and Carcass Traits of Japanese Black Cattle

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to estimate genetic parameters and sire breeding values for average daily gain (ADG) and carcass traits using sire-maternal grandsire model with REML approach, sire model with REML approach, sire model without relationships among sires and with REML and ANOVA approach, and to investigate advantages and disadvantages of these methods. Data were collected from 42,325 Japanese Black steers and heifers finished and slaughtered from 1991 to 2004. Traits analyzed in this study were average daily gain (ADG) during the fattening period, live weight at slaughter (LW), cold carcass weight (CW), estimated lean yield percentage (LYE), longissimus muscle area (LMA), subcutaneous fat thickness (SFT), rib thickness (RT), and marbling score (BMS). Bivariate analyses were also performed to obtain genetic and phenotypic correlation coefficients among traits. Estimated breeding values were obtained from each model, and simple and rank correlations among breeding values from each model were calculated. Estimates of heritability using the four models ranged from 0.25 to 0.31 in ADG, from 0.21 to 0.24 in LW, from 0.23 to 0.27 in CW, from 0.10 to 0.17 in DP, from 0.40 to 0.42 in LYE, from 0.19 to 0.31 in LMA, from 0.31 to 0.34 in SFT, from 0.26 to 0.33 in RT, and from 0.18 to 0.44 in BMS. The differences in heritability estimates using the four models seemed to be feasible in ADG, CW, DP, LMA, RT, and BMS. Genetic correlation coefficients of ADG with CW, SFT, RT and BMS were moderate to high and positive while the genetic correlation coefficients between ADG and LYE was low and negative. Correlation coefficients of BMS with SFT were negligible for both genetic and phenotypic correlations. The correlations of estimates evaluated from sire models with those from sire-maternal grandsire model were not large enough to convincing that breeding values using a sire model were corresponding to those using a sire-maternal grand sire model. If information of maternal grand sires are not available, the sire model with incomplete pedigree information included only sire of sire (Model 2) is optimal among the sire models evaluated in this study.