Identifying breeding goals to develop selection index for buffalo in Egypt using preference survey
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Identifying breeding goals to develop selection index for buffalo in Egypt using preference survey S. A. M Abdel-Salam 1 Received: 30 January 2019 / Accepted: 24 May 2019 # Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract The aim of the study was to identify the breeding goals, derive the relative goal values (RGV), and develop selection index (SI) for buffalo in Egypt. A structured questionnaire survey of milk-producing buffalo holders in 10 Egyptian governorates was carried out to collect data. The total number of surveyed holders was 1797. Buffalo holders were asked to identify the breeding goal groups (BGG). Breeding goal groups were ranked, according to relative importance to farmers, in descending order. The breeding goal traits (BGT) within each BGG were chosen and ranked in descending order. The survey results reflected the importance of milk production traits as the main breeding goal. Traits of milk yield and fat yield were given the greatest attention. In order to estimate the relative goal values (RGV), the subjective determination procedure was used. A principal component analysis (PCA) followed by cluster analysis (CA) of the principal components were performed. The CA led to the identification of three farmer clusters. Six selection indices were proposed from the PCA. The indices yielded different precision with a maximum of 93% of the holder’s preferences variability. The current study revealed that subjective method could be used to identify the RGV. Further studies are needed particularly those related to the production system. Also, measurements of market data and consumers requests and their influence on the selected traits are badly needed. Keywords Breeding goals . Relative goal values . Selection index . Buffalo
Introduction Breeding goals and objectives have a vital influence on directing the pattern of genetic improvement programs and need regular revision to guarantee they line up with future market requests. Byrne et al. 2012 stated that changing breeding goals and objectives tend to be inherently unpopular with livestock holders and can influence the relative values of animal breeds. Breeding objectives play an essential part in defining the ideal herd size and trend of genetic merit in traits. Economically, the efficient multiple-trait selection is typically accomplished through the determination of breeding objectives and the development of proper selection indexes for a specific production system. In countries with industrialized
* S. A. M Abdel-Salam [email protected] 1
Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
dairy enterprises, a breeding objective is regularly controlled at the national level. The final choice of selection indexes is studied by analyzing the frequency of farmers’ priority, from surveys, for improving dairy cattle traits utilizing breeder typologies (Byrne et al. 2016). The breeding objective is characterized as the group of economically significant traits of cow within the typology of production (Smith 1985
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