Estimation of genetic parameters and environmental factors on early growth traits for Lori breed sheep using single trait animal model

The effects of different environmental factors and estimation of genetic parameters on early growth traits for Lori breed sheep including birth weight, weaning weight and body weight at 6 months of age using 19960 records from 35 herds of Lorestan Jahad Agriculture Organization were studied in the cities of Aleshtar, Khorramabad and Poldokhtar from 1995 to 2003. The effect of herd, sex of lambs, dam age and birth year on all traits and birth type had significant effect only on weaning weight. Different single trait animal models estimated the components of direct additive genetic variance, maternal genetic variance and maternal permanent environment variance through restricted maximum likelihood using environmental factors as a fixe effect and different random effects. The results showed that direct additive genetic effect had additionally significant effect on all traits moreover maternal additive genetic and maternal permanent environment effects. Results also revealed that the maternal permanent environment variance for all traits is higher than maternal genetic variance. Also the direct heritability for all traits was higher than maternal heritability. Estimation of the direct heritability from the birth to 6 months of age showed a reducing trend that could arise from high dependence of birth and weaning weight on maternal environment conditions as compared with the age conditions afterward. The genetic assessment of growth traits in Lori breed sheep without inclusion of maternal effect in animal model causes decreased selection accuracy and incorrect genetic assessment of the lambs.