Phenotypic parameters and genetic parameter estimates of growth traits in Anatolian buffalo raised in Tokat province

In this study, the variance components and genetic parameters were estimated for growth traits of 9401 head Anatolian buffaloe calves born between 2012 and 2022 in Tokat province. For this aim, birth weight (BW), sixth month (LW6), twelfth month live weights (LW12) and daily average live weight gain of buffaloes were analyzed as growth traits. In total, 44424 growth data (BW (9401), LW6 (7685), LW12 (6550), daily live weight gain between birth and sixth month (DLWGBW-6, 7685), daily live weight gain between 6th month and 12th month (DLWG6-12, 6553) and daily live weight gain between birth and 12th month (DLWGDA-12, 6560)) were evaluated. The averages of live weight for female and male calves were 29.97±0.063 and 31.15±0.066 kg at birth weight, 101.67±0.312 and 104.87±0.329 kg at LW6, 156.38±0.467 and 161.31±0. 490 kg at LW12, 0.399±0.002 and 0.409±0.002 g at DLWGBW-6, 0.308±0.002 and 0.317±0.002 g at DLWG6-12 and 0.346±0.001 and 0.356±0.001 g at DLWGBW-12; respectively. In this study, the variance components and genetic parameters for all traits were estimated by MTDFREML programme. The heritability (h2) for the BW, LW6, LW12, DLWGDA-6, DLWG6-12 and DLWGDA-12 were estimated as 0.24, 0.15, 0.16, 0.15, 0.14 and 0.15, respectively. The higher genetic correlations between DLWGDA-6 and LW6, and between LW6 and LW12 were found as 0.97 and 0.88. The higher phenotypic correlations were found as 0.987 and 0.975 between DLWGDA-12 and LW12, and, between DLWGDA-6 and BW. The genetic trend for BW, LW6 and LW12 growth traits were determined as 0.0049, 0.06 and 30.20 kg/year, respectively. To conclude, the estimated variance components, genetic parameters and breeding values could be used as selection criteria to increase the success of the selection in breeding studies for Anatolian buffalo population in Türkiye.