Fait partie de [OMA33]

1997 - 247 p.

Preliminary analysis of the possibility of including longevity as a breeding goal of Malagueña goats

Serradilla J.M., Sanchez-Palma A., Micheo J.M.

Different measures of longevity, their heritability and correlations with yield and trait-types, as well as the strategies to increase herd life through selection, are reviewed. Age structure of Malagueña goats in milk recorded herds, current culling policy, and relations between herd life of goats and their yields are described. Data show that, contrary to what farmers declare, there is some culling of animals based on yields. Relations between long herd life and genetic values for milk traits seem to be negative, but they are not very reliable. Causes of the low average productive life of goats, particularly diseases, are discussed in relation to the nature of longevity and its genetic variation. Consequences of a higher longevity on the genetic progress of yield traits, studied through simulation, are negative, but these effects are encounteracted by the economic advantage of a longer herd life. Possibilities of selection for longevity under the present conditions of the selection scheme are limited, in the short term, to the 'automatic' selection realised when leaving most of the replacements from older goats. However, early life indicators of adaptation to disease hazards should be sought.

Mots-clés    

AMELIORATION DES ANIMAUX, CAPRIN, LONGEVITE

Citer cet article    

Serradilla J.M., Sanchez-Palma A., Micheo J.M. Preliminary analysis of the possibility of including longevity as a breeding goal of Malagueña goats. In : Gabiña D. (ed.), Bodin L. (ed.). Data collection and definition of objectives in sheep and goat breeding programmes: New prospects . Zaragoza : CIHEAM, 1997. p. 207-219. (Options Méditerranéennes : Série A. Séminaires Méditerranéens; n. 33). Meeting of the FAO-CIHEAM Network of Cooperative Research on Sheep and Goats and Subnetwork on Animal Resources, 9-11 Mar 1997, Toulouse (France). http://om.ciheam.org/om/pdf/a33/97606011.pdf