Genetic Evaluation Of IRAQI Local Goats And Their Crosses Using Milk Traits

In Iraq, improvement of local goat for milk through selection and/or crossbreeding has been initiated in 1993. Estimation of heritability and repeatability after adjusting records of milk traits for the fixed effects and using relationship matrix is necessary in order to measure gain due to selection and to maximize accuracy of predicted breeding values (Freeman, 1998 ; Sakul et al., 1999). Moreover, if the genetic potential of the flock is to be improved, both males and females should be selected (Verma and Chawla, 1988). Animal model (AM) procedure allow simultaneous evaluation of all animals (including those without records) for direct additive genetic merit, not only on the basis of their own records but also through the inclusion of the inverse of the relationship matrix on the performance of all relatives (Sakul et al., 1999). Quaas (1988) and Westell et al. (1988) showed how genetic groups could be included in individual animal models to take into account the differences in the average genetic merit of animals imported into a population. This study aimed to evaluate the animals genetically on milk traits by predicting their breeding values individually using the animal model Program