Genetic analysis of litter size and number of kids born alive across parities in Spanish goat breeds using a random regression model

Figures & data

Figure 1. Least-squares means of litter size (LS) across parities in Florida and Payoya breeds.

Figure 2. Least-squares means of number of kids born alive (NBA) across parities in Florida and Payoya breeds.

Table 1. Distribution of data over parities in Florida and Payoya breeds^a.

	Florida		Payoya
Parity	N° records	Age	N° records	Age
1	45.310	1.37	20.408	1.61
2	33.122	2.32	16.300	2.51
3	22.142	3.31	11.658	3.45
4	13.851	4.29	7.919	4.41
5	7.998	5.25	5.132	5.39
6	4.338	6.21	3.228	6.36
7	4.088	7.87	3.850	7.78

^aAverage female age is expressed in years.

Table 2. Estimates of variance components, heritabilities, and repeatabilities for litter size (LS) across parities in Florida and Payoya breeds using a threshold random regression model^a.

Parity	Florida					Payoya
	${\sigma }_a^2$	${\sigma }_{pe}^2$	$h^2$	HPD95%	t	${\sigma }_a^2$	${\sigma }_{pe}^2$	$h^2$	HPD95%	t
1	0.087	0.081	0.07	0.06 0.09	0.14	0.270	0.260	0.18	0.13 0.21	0.34
2	0.003	0.005	0.00	0.002 0.005	0.008	0.009	0.015	0.01	0.006 0.01	0.02
3	0.012	0.010	0.01	0.009 0.01	0.02	0.042	0.026	0.04	0.03 0.05	0.06
4	0.041	0.043	0.04	0.03 0.04	0.07	0.158	0.108	0.13	0.09 0.14	0.21
5	0.075	0.091	0.06	0.05 0.08	0.14	0.282	0.185	0.19	0.15 0.22	0.32
6	0.154	0.175	0.12	0.08 0.15	0.24	0.475	0.293	0.27	0.22 0.33	0.43
7	0.374	0.353	0.22	0.15 0.27	0.42	0.933	0.582	0.37	0.25 0.47	0.60

^aResidual variance for threshold model is equal to unity.

${\sigma }_a^2:$ additive genetic variance; ${\sigma }_{pe}^2:$ permanent environmental variance; $h^2:$ heritability; HPD_95%: high posterior density interval at 95% for h² estimates; t: repeatability.

Table 3. Estimates of variance components, heritabilities, and repeatabilities for number of kids born alive (NBA) across parities in Florida and Payoya breeds using a threshold random regression model^a.

	Florida					Payoya
Parity	${\sigma }_a^2$	${\sigma }_{pe}^2$	$h^2$	HPD95%	t	${\sigma }_a^2$	${\sigma }_{pe}^2$	$h^2$	HPD95%	t
1	0.022	0.023	0.02	0.01 0.02	0.04	0.029	0.025	0.03	0.02 0.04	0.05
2	0.035	0.010	0.03	0.03 0.04	0.04	0.088	0.109	0.07	0.05 0.09	0.16
3	0.057	0.016	0.05	0.04 0.06	0.07	0.145	0.204	0.11	0.08 0.14	0.26
4	0.046	0.015	0.04	0.03 0.05	0.06	0.125	0.181	0.10	0.07 0.12	0.23
5	0.019	0.012	0.02	0.01 0.02	0.03	0.052	0.063	0.05	0.03 0.06	0.10
6	0.049	0.042	0.04	0.03 0.05	0.08	0.054	0.034	0.05	0.03 0.06	0.08
7	0.267	0.167	0.19	0.15 0.22	0.30	0.361	0.431	0.20	0.14 0.27	0.44

^aResidual variance for threshold model is equal to unity.

${\sigma }_a^2:$ additive genetic variance; ${\sigma }_{pe}^2:$ permanent environmental variance; $h^2:$ heritability; HPD_95%: high posterior density interval at 95% for h² estimates; t: repeatability.

Table 4. Estimates of additive genetic correlations (above diagonal) and phenotypic correlations (below diagonal) between litter size (LS) across parities in Florida breed using a threshold random regression model.

	Parity
Parity	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	–	0.94	−0.90	−0.81	−0.52	−0.09	0.25
2	0.17	–	−0.78	−0.74	−0.50	−0.12	0.19
3	−0.09	0.55	–	0.96	0.77	0.41	0.07
4	−0.18	0.51	0.82	–	0.91	0.63	0.32
5	−0.23	0.49	0.82	0.91	–	0.89	0.67
6	−0.26	0.47	0.80	0.91	0.95	–	0.93
7	−0.24	0.45	0.78	0.89	0.94	0.96	–

Table 5. Estimates of additive genetic correlations (above diagonal) and phenotypic correlations (below diagonal) between litter size (LS) across parities in Payoya breed using a threshold random regression model.

	Parity
Parity	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	–	0.99	−0.96	−0.89	−0.71	−0.38	−0.02
2	0.06	–	−0.98	−0.93	−0.77	−0.47	−0.12
3	−0.13	0.61	–	0.97	0.86	0.60	0.26
4	−0.20	0.60	0.85	–	0.95	0.75	0.46
5	−0.23	0.60	0.87	0.93	–	0.92	0.71
6	−0.26	0.60	0.87	0.94	0.96	–	0.92
7	−0.31	0.59	0.86	0.93	0.96	0.97	–

Table 6. Estimates of additive genetic correlations (above diagonal) and phenotypic correlations (below diagonal) between number of kids born alive (NBA) across parities in Florida breed using a threshold random regression model.

	Parity
Parity	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	–	0.51	0.29	0.35	0.78	0.75	0.49
2	0.16	–	0.97	0.98	0.90	−0.13	−0.48
3	−0.08	0.55	–	0.99	0.79	−0.35	−0.66
4	−0.17	0.51	0.81	–	0.83	−0.28	−0.61
5	−0.21	0.49	0.82	0.91	–	0.28	−0.08
6	−0.24	0.47	0.80	0.90	0.95	–	0.93
7	−0.23	0.45	0.78	0.89	0.94	0.96	–

Table 7. Estimates of additive genetic correlations (above diagonal) and phenotypic correlations (below diagonal) between number of kids born alive (NBA) across parities in Payoya breed using a threshold random regression model.

	Parity
Parity	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	–	0.63	0.52	0.55	0.80	0.68	0.20
2	0.08	–	0.98	0.99	0.95	−0.09	−0.61
3	−0.09	0.60	–	0.99	0.91	−0.23	−0.72
4	−0.15	0.59	0.85	–	0.93	−0.18	−0.68
5	−0.20	0.60	0.86	0.93	–	0.17	−0.37
6	−0.24	0.60	0.87	0.94	0.96	–	0.84
7	−0.30	0.59	0.86	0.93	0.96	0.97	–

Table 8. Estimates of phenotypic (r_p) and additive genetic (r_g) correlations between litter size (LS) and number of kids born alive (NBA) across parities in Florida and Payoya breeds using a threshold random regression model.

	Florida		Payoya
Parity	rp	rg	rp	rg
1	0.96	0.81	0.89	0.93
2	0.96	0.56	0.94	0.66
3	0.96	−0.35	0.95	−0.45
4	0.97	−0.21	0.95	−0.30
5	0.97	−0.09	0.95	−0.25
6	0.97	−0.11	0.95	−0.53
7	0.96	−0.18	0.96	−0.62

r_p: phenotypic correlation; r_g: additive genetic correlation.