Abstract

Three lines of mice consisting of 20 pairs of mice were selected for seven generations on performance in the first litter as follows: Line A- Total weight of litter weaned per gram of dam body weight at nine weeks of age; Line B- Number of young born alive per gram of dam body weight at nine weeks of age; Line C- random selection. Realized heritability estimates for NB/D9W were 0.16-0.07, while for TWW/D9W the estimate was 0.02-0.02. The correlated selection responses for NB and D9W were in the desired directions with selection for NB/D9W. However selection for TWW/D9W resulted in correlated responses both in the positive direction. Possible explanation for these direct and indirect responses are discussed in the paper.
 

B. G Luxford

Proceedings of the World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, Volume XI. Genetics of reproduction, lactation, growth, adaptation, disease, and parasite resistance., , 221–227, 1986