Repeatability and random regression models to estimate genetic parameters for oocyte and embryo production in the Gir breed
Renata de Fátima Bretanha Rocha
A , Pamela Itajara Otto B , Marcos Vinicius Gualberto Barbosa da Silva C , Marta Fonseca Martins C , Marco Antonio Machado C , Renata Veroneze A , Felipe Damasceno Leandro D , Stela Naetzold Pereira B , Simone Eliza Facioni Guimarães A and João Cláudio do Carmo Panetto C *
A Department of Animal Science, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, MG 36570-900, Brazil.
B Department of Animal Science, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS 97105-900, Brazil.
C EMBRAPA - Dairy Cattle National Research Center, Juiz de Fora, MG 36038-330, Brazil.
D Universidade José do Rosário Vellano/UNIFENAS, Alfenas, MG 37132-440, Brazil.
Animal Production Science 62(17) 1661-1670 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN21588
Submitted: 3 December 2021 Accepted: 10 June 2022 Published: 19 July 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing
Abstract
Context: Greater production of oocytes and embryos from Gir donors contributes to greater fertility and genetic progress.
Aims: This study aimed to obtain genetic parameters for oocyte and embryo production in the Gir breed.
Methods: Repeatability and random regression models were applied to data consisting of 17 526 Ovum Pick Up observations from 1641 Gir donors from five different herds. Single and multi-trait analyses were carried out with the application of both models for the traits: number of viable oocytes, number of total oocytes and number of embryos, using the BLUPF90 family programs. Legendre polynomials of second order were used in the random regression model.
Key results: Considering the repeatability model, additive genetic variance ranged from 0.06 to 0.13 and permanent environment variance ranged from 0.05 to 0.08 for all evaluated traits. Residual variance ranged from 0.30 to 0.45. Heritability estimates were 0.10 for number of embryos, 0.24 for total oocytes, and 0.25 for viable oocytes. Repeatability estimates were moderate, ranging from 0.20 to 0.40, and genetic correlation estimates were always above 0.80. Phenotypic correlation was high only between viable and total oocytes (0.95), and moderate in the other cases. Random regression model results were consistent with those from the repeatability model. The heritability values remained similar throughout the donors’ ages, with moderate values for viable and total oocytes, and low values for number of embryos. Genetic correlations among ages for each trait were moderate to high. Also, the genetic correlations between traits within each age were high, with values always above 0.7.
Conclusions: Selection of Gir donors for total oocyte production at any time, between 1 and 16 years of age, might lead to an increase in the number of viable oocytes and embryos obtained, but it’s preferable at younger ages to hasten genetic progress. Repeatability models could be the best method, as they require less computational effort when compared to the random regression models and the parameter estimates do not vary substantially throughout different ages of the donor.
Implications: The use of repeatability models to estimate genetic parameters of oocytes and embryos resulted in similar results compared to random regression models.
Keywords: dairy cattle, genetic correlation, heritability, ovum pick up, phenotypic correlation, repeatability, reproduction, zebu cattle.
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