Micron blowout: heritability and genetic correlations with fibre diameter and secondary follicle diameter

Abstract

Calculation of micron blowout as the difference between fibre diameter records taken at different ages can produce ‘biased’ estimates of the heritability and genetic correlations due to a scale effect. In some instances, standardisation of the fibre diameter records to a common genetic variance (i.e. removal of the scale effect) changed the heritability and the genetic correlation estimates. The effect of standardisation on the heritability of micron blowout was determined to a large extent by the difference in the genetic variance between the 2 fibre diameter measurements, whereas in the case of the genetic correlation between micron blowout and another trait, it was also dependent on the genetic correlation between the other trait and the two fibre diameters. It is recommended that heritabilities and genetic correlations involving micron blowout be calculated after standardising the fibre diameter measurements to a common genetic variance. The practical implications of the results are briefly discussed.