Genetic evaluation of eggshell color based on additive and dominance models in laying hens

Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences

Kehua Wang¹  Jun Guo¹  Taocun Dou¹  Meng Ma¹  Yuping Hu¹  Manman Shen¹  Liang Qu¹ 

[1] Jiangsu Institute of Poultry Science, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, 225125, China;

关键词: bayesian;    eggshell color;    genetic evaluation;    heritability;    layer;   

DOI  :  10.5713/ajas.19.0345

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Objective Eggshells with a uniform color and intensity are important for egg production because many consumers assess the quality of an egg according to the shell color. In the present study, we evaluated the influence of dominant effects on the variations in eggshell color after 32 weeks in a crossbred population. Methods This study was conducted using 7,878 eggshell records from 2,626 hens. Heritability was estimated using a univariate animal model, which included inbreeding coefficients as a fixed effect and animal additive genetic, dominant genetic, and residuals as random effects. Genetic correlations were obtained using a bivariate animal model. The optimal diagnostic criteria identified in this study were: L* value (lightness) using a dominance model, and a* (redness), and b* (yellowness) value using an additive model. Results The estimated heritabilities were 0.65 for shell lightness, 0.42 for redness, and 0.60 for yellowness. The dominance heritability was 0.23 for lightness. The estimated genetic correlations were 0.61 between lightness and redness, −0.84 between lightness and yellowness, and −0.39 between redness and yellowness. Conclusion These results indicate that dominant genetic effects could help to explain the phenotypic variance in eggshell color, especially based on data from blue-shelled chickens. Considering the dominant genetic variation identified for shell color, this variation should be employed to produce blue eggs for commercial purposes using a planned mating system.

【 授权许可】

Unknown