Investigation of growth curve models of body characteristics and the estimations of heritability of these characteristics in sakiz breed lamb growing in isparta

In this study, Gompertz, Logistic and linear growth curve functions of various body characteristics of Sakiz lambs were determined. For this purpose, data of lambs' body weight, cidago height, rump width, chest circumference, body length characters were used. Birth weight of Sakiz lambs and their averages of 120 days of age were respectively found to be 3.89 ± 0.11 and 30.78 ± 0.78 kg. High correlations (P <0.01) were determined between body weight and body characteristics of lambs at this age. Gompertz growth curve function parameters for body weight were 45.50 ± 3.91, 2.35 ± 0.07 and 0.01 ± 0.002. The parameters belonging to the Logistic and linear growth curve models were respectively estimated as 36.18 ± 1.68, 6.37 ± 0.36, 0.03 ± 0.002 and 3.63 ± 0.32 and 0.23 ± 0.005. In the study, heritability estimates of the body characteristics of Sakiz lambs were also computed. Accordingly, the heritability of body weight was 0.27 ± 0.16; for cidago height, rump width, body length and chest circumference were estimated as 0.27 ± 0.11, 0.30 ± 0.17, 0.21 ± 0.14 and 0.19 ± 0.14, respectively.