Breeding strategies for animal resilience to weather variation in meat sheep

BMC Genomic Data

Table 6 Correlation matrix for ewe traits

	AWG	AWW	APostWW	LS	PL	Response	Stability
AWG	0.098*	0.471*	NC	0.558*	0.186	0.037	0.030
AWW	0.297*	0.193*	0.471*	−0.384*	−0.067	0.717*	0.755*
APostWW	NC	0.297*	0.098*	0.558*	0.115	0.068	0.092
LS	−0.027	−0.248*	−0.027	0.098*	0.079	−0.491*	−0.628*
PL	0.034	0.072*	0.039*	−0.048*	0.215*	−0.140	−0.130
Response	−0.147*	0.430*	−0.168*	−0.113*	0.095*	0.057*	0.999*
Stability	−0.147*	0.416*	−0.189*	−0.109*	0.092*	0.989*	0.037

Heritabilities of ewe traits presented on the diagonal (bold), genetic correlations above the diagonal and phenotypic correlations below the diagonal. Standard errors ranged from 0.016 to 0.320. AWG average individual growth performance of offspring (average gain weight of the offspring); AWW average weaning weight of offspring; APostWW average post-weaning weight of offspring; LS litter size of first lambing of ewe; PL productive longevity (number of lambings) of ewe; Response resilience phenotype reflecting change in average weight gain of the offspring per unit of air temperature change (°C) Stability = absolute value Response; * = significantly different from 0 (P < 0.05); NC=Non-estimable due to failure to converge

ISSN: 2730-6844