Genetic Parameter Estimation of Partial Egg Production Traits in Layers

Ünver, Y., Oĝuz, İ. and Akbaş, Y. 2002. Genetic parameter estimation of partial egg production traits in layers. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 22: 243–248. To estimate heritabilities of different partial egg production traits and their correlations with each other and to use it as a selection criteria, egg productions of 1980 animals from 43 sires and 8 dams per sire were used. Heritability estimates of the second period egg production were the, lowest based on sire and sire+dam variance components, while it was the lowest in the third period based on animal model. The highest heritability estimates were obtained for 31–40 weeks of age for all models used. Heritability estimates for animal model were generally close to heritability from sire model. Due to high correlations of sub-partial egg productions with 22–40 weeks of egg production, the former can be used as a selection criterion.