Abstract
This paper reports direct and maternal genetic parameters for faecal worm egg count (WEC), scouring, fleece and body weight traits in Merino sheep in a Mediterranean environment. WEC at 3 (WEC3) and 15 months (WEC 15) of age had a low heritably (0.19 and 0.15) and was genetically well correlated (0.66). Faecal consistency scores (FS) had a very low heritability at both times (0.04 and 0.09) and was genetically moderately correlated (0.39). The phenotypic relationship between WEC and FS at 3 and 15 months of age was about zero while the genetic relationship was negative and low (-0.21 to -0.25). The genetic relationship between FS15 and WEC 15 was virtually zero indicating that they are genetically different traits.
Proceedings of the World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, Volume 24: Sheep and goats (fibre); sheep and goats (meat and milk); poultry; horses; buffaloes., , 63–66, 1998
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