INHERITANCE OF ECONOMIC TRAITS OF DAIRY BUFFALOES IN PAKISTAN

Inheritance of economic traits was studied in Nili- Ravi dairy buffaloes through analysis of data compr ising 5037 records of daughters of 79 sires. Data were co llected from three large-sized state dairy farms. H eritability, genetic and phenotypic correlations of some indicat or traits on important production and reproduction traits were worked out. Based upon analysis of records for firs t lactation traits, higher values were recorded for heritability of first lactation milk yield, standard 305 days milk yield, lactation length, birth weight and first lactation peak daily yield (h 2 = 0.62, 0.61, 0.54, 0.39, 0.35, respectively). Com paratively lower heritability was recorded for reproductive traits including age at first calving, age at puberty and first calving interval (h 2 = 0.28, 0.21, 0.15, respectively). Analysis of records for all lactation traits provided higher values for heritability of lactation length, lactation yield, standard 305 days milk yield, yiel d per day of calving interval (h 2 = 0.43, 0.38, 0.34, 0.31, respectively) while peak daily yield, daily yield a nd calving interval had comparatively lower heritab ility (h 2 = 0.26, 0.24 and 0.18, respectively). The findings suggeste d that heritability estimates of first lactation economic traits provided a better tool for selective breeding, expe cted to lead to rapid aggregate genetic gains in da iry buffaloes. In addition, the milk yielding traits and birth weight were highly heritable and the reproductive traits were low.