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NEW FOSSIL REMAINS OF BRACHYPOTHERIUM PERIMENSE FROM THE CHINJI AND NAGRI FORMATIONS OF PAKISTAN

2012; ELEWA BIOSCIENCES, F.a.C.T.LTD; Volume: 22; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

2309-8694

Abdul Majid Khan, Muhammad Akhtar, Muhammad Akbar Khan, A. Shaheen,

Agricultural Economics and Practices

ABSTRACT Data on body weights at different ages of 624 Nili Ravi buffalo heifers from 243 dams and sired by 48 sires kept at LES,Bahadurnagar, Okara, Pakistan were collected from 1989 to 2002 and analyzed by using DFREML (Derivative FreeRestricted Maximum Likelihood) in this study. Average weights at birth, weaning, yearling, Pre-weaning average dailygain were 35.86±4.30 kg with CV of 11.99%, 66.12±9.16 with CV 13.85%, 145.82±19.50 with CV of 13.37%,316.47±88.33 g for Nili-Ravi female calves, while average post-weaning daily gain was 297.66±31.03 g. Averageweight at 2 years of age in heifers was 240.05±25.10 kg and average 3 years weight was 329.73±23.17 kg. ANOVAindicated significant effect of birth year, season of birth, age and weight of dam on the growth traits. Maximum weightwas observed in spring season, while minimum weight was obtained in winter season. The maximum heritability was0.25±0.14 for birth weight while the minimum heritability was 0.16±0.75 for yearling weight. The heritability estimatesfor all growth traits were moderate to high suggesting that selection might be a good criterion for improvement. Thephenotypic correlations ranged from 0.29±0.19 between birth weight and weight at 36 month’s age and 0.76±0.16between weaning weight and weight at 12 month’s age. The maximum environmental correlation was 0.83±0.20between 12 months weight and weight at 24 months of age while it was minimum as 0.23±0.11 between weaning weightand weight at 36 months of age. The highest genetic correlation was 0.62±0.09 between birth weight and weight at 24months of age whereas minimum genetic correlation was 0.25±0.12 between 12 months weight and weight at 36 monthsof age. In general correlations were fairly large and positive indicating that selecting one trait will positively affect theother trait.Key words: Genetic parameters, Growth traits, Buffalo heifers, Pakistan.