Application of an AM-BLUP to the station test results of Italian Saddle horse stallions
The data collected in the first seven years of the 100-day Station Test for Italian Saddle Horse stallions have been used to estimate EBVs by single trait - repeatability AM-BLUP. There were 9449 scores for “character” and “gaits”, and 3564 for “jump...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2010-04-01
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| Series: | Italian Journal of Animal Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.aspajournal.it/index.php/ijas/article/view/1451 |
| Summary: | The data collected in the first seven years of the 100-day Station Test for Italian Saddle Horse stallions have been used to estimate EBVs by single trait - repeatability AM-BLUP. There were 9449 scores for “character” and “gaits”, and 3564 for “jumping ability” in the training period; 344 scores for each trait were also available from the final evaluations assigned by two well-known professional riders; in the pedigree file of the 180 tested horses there were 2837 animals. Heritability estimates were .38±.02 and .23±.14 for “character”, .60±.02 and .58±.04 for “gaits”, and .48±.02 and .52±.04 for “jumping”, in the training period and in the final evaluation, respectively. The training period and the final evaluation were weighted 90% and 10% in each trait index, and the weights for “character”, “gaits” and “jumping” were 25%, 25% and 50% in the overall index. The genetic index was correlated .97 with the current official index, both linearly and in rank: therefore, the 82 licensed stallions give a selection intensity of .85, instead of the theoretical maximum of .87. Although the difference in the response to selection that the switching to BLUP could assure is low, the breeders could make comparisons between stallions approved in different editions. |
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| ISSN: | 1594-4077 1828-051X |