Genetic Parameters of Reproductive Traits in Brown Tsaiya Ducks Artificially Inseminated with Semen from Muscovy Drakes

Abstract

A selection experiment on maximum duration of fertility of Brown Tsaiya ducks after artificial insemination (AI) with pooled Muscovy semen has been conducted since 1992. The Brown Tsaiya ducks were divided into two lines: a control line (T) with no selection and a selected line (S). The traits measured were the number of eggs set that were laid from Days 2 to 15 after one AI (NES), the number of fertile eggs at candling (NEF), the total number of dead embryos (NED), the maximum duration of fertility (MD), and the number of hatched mule ducklings (NEH). The selected trait was NEF. Six generations with a total of 2,127 females were measured. The variance components were estimated for each line in a multiple-trait animal model, using the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) methodology, which yields estimates free of bias caused by selection and inbreeding. Estimates of the heritability and genetic correlation from the two lines were very similar. Heritabilities in the S and T lines, respectively, were 0.14 and 0.10 for NES, 0.30 and 0.26 for NEF, 0.06 and 0.09 for NED, 0.28 and 0.21 for MD, and 0.18 and 0.19 for NEH. High and favorable genetic correlations existed between NEF and MD (0.96 and 0.92), between NEF and NEH (0.86 and 0.91), and between MD and NEH (0.90 and 0.82). The results suggested that selection for NEF could improve the maximum duration of fertility, but it could be useful to check the estimates of genetic parameters in a meat-type female duck.

Inheritance of duration of fertility in female common ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) inseminated in pure breeding or in inter-generic crossbreeding with Muscovy drakes (Cairina moschata)

“…Our estimates of the genetic correlations between these traits were higher than 0.96, whereas the estimates from Poivey et al (2001) ranged from 0.82 to 0.96, depending on the strain and the pair of traits considered.…”

“…Comparison with other studies in duck hybridisation Our estimates of heritability for duration of fertility in common ducks inseminated with semen from Muscovy drakes tended to be lower than those obtained by Poivey et al (2001) in two strains (selected and control) of Tsaiya common ducks in the course of a selection experiment: for MD c , 0.15 v. 0.25 on average over the two Tsaiya strains; for F c , 0.23 v. 0.28; and for H c , 0.16 v. 0.18. Our estimates of the genetic correlations between these traits were higher than 0.96, whereas the estimates from Poivey et al (2001) ranged from 0.82 to 0.96, depending on the strain and the pair of traits considered.…”

“…Authors who have studied the possibility of improving the duration of fertility by selection have primarily focused on the female component: , Beaumont (1992) and Brillard et al (1998) for the laying hen, and Tai et al (1994), Poivey et al (2001) and Cheng et al (2002 and2009) for the common duck. In the case of ducks bred by CB, selection can dramatically improve the number of fertile eggs after a single insemination (Cheng et al, 2002 and2009).…”

Selection responses for�the�number of�fertile eggs of�the�Brown Tsaiya duck (Anas platyrhynchos) after�a�single artificial insemination with�pooled Muscovy (Cairina moschata) semen

“…These multipletrait BLUP animal model values were calculated using the records of all five traits together for the selected and control lines from G1 to G8, using the PEST 3.1 package [12,13], with a performance file of 7 890 records and a pedigree file of 4 985 animals. The heritabilities, repeatabilities, genetic and phenotypic correlations for the five traits were taken from Poivey et al [26] for these computations of breeding values. For simplification, the approximate standard errors for the generation S-C differences were calculated for each trait with the estimated parameters, considering that the predicted additive genetic values were computed in univariate analyses [31], as in [18].…”

Genome-Wide Transcript Expression Analysis in the Uterovaginal Junction in Association with Fertile Period in Tsaiya Ducks

“…The Tsaiya duck is the major egg-laying duck in Taiwan [21,22]. In this study, targets were prepared from long-and short-fertile-period groups of ducks and hybridized with commercially available chicken oligo- Journal of Reproduction and Development, Vol.…”