Genetic evaluation of reproductive potential in the Zatorska goose under a conservation program

Abstract

The aim of this study was to estimate the genetic parameters and inbreeding effect on the fertility, embryo mortality and hatchability traits in the Zatorska goose covered by the animal genetic resources conservation program. The material for this study contains information about results of hatching of 18 863 eggs from 721 dams and 168 sires, laid between 1998-2015. Genetic parameters were estimated based on the threshold animal model by the use of Restricted Maximum Likelihood and Gibbs sampling. The percentage of fertilized eggs ranged yearly between 37-80%. The percentage of embryo mortality was very low, ranging between 4.63-23.73%. The percentage of the hatched goslings from the total number of analyzed eggs was on average 33.18%, and 53.72% from fertilized eggs. On average based on both methods, the heritability estimates of the fertility, embryo mortality and hatchability reached 0.36, 0.07, 0.24 for males and 0.44, 0.11, 0.32 for females. The genetic trend had increasing tendency for fertility and hatchability and was stable for embryo mortality for both sexes. The obtained result shows that the Zatorska goose can be still maintained in the reserves of the local gene pool according to current rules and use in the local market as a breed with good reproductive potential.

Characteristics of semen collected from gander included in the genetic resources conservation program

“…Until recently, studies on goose conservative flocks included mainly the assessment of embryo karyotype and chromosomal abnormalities, DNA and serum protein polymorphism, temporal trends in the reproductive traits, chemical composition, morphological and qualitative characteristics of eggs and meat ( Mazanowski et al, 2005 ; 2006a , b ; Książkiewicz, 2007 ). It is well known that there is an increase in homozygosity level in small closed populations, which reduces the reproductive capacity of inbred individuals ( Graczyk et al, 2018 ). In the case of birds, the most effective method of ex situ in vitro biodiversity protection is the creation of sperm banks ( Saint Jalme, 2003 ; Łukaszewicz et al, 2011 ), therefore, sperm quality plays a very important role in the successful cryopreservation process.…”