The objective of this study was to estimate genetic associations of prolificacy traits with other traits under selection in the Finnish Landrace and Large White populations. The prolificacy traits evaluated were total number of piglets born, number of stillborn piglets, piglet mortality during suckling, age at first farrowing, and first farrowing interval. Genetic correlations were estimated wi...

Genetic improvement of pig performance was summarised for 28 Australian pig populations at the previous AGBU pig genetics workshop (Hermesch, 2006). The average genetic trend was $1.06 per pig each year. In comparison, the top 25% of populations had achieved $1.92 per pig each year. During subsequent discussions at the workshop, breeders set a target of an annual genetic gain of $3 per pig. In ...

This review presents a framework for evaluating how cells, tissues, organs, and whole plants perform both hydraulic and mechanical functions. The morphological alterations that affect dual functionality are varied: individual cells can have altered morphology; tissues can have altered partitioning to functions or altered cell alignment; and organs and whole plants can differ in their allocation...

The aim of livestock breeding plans is to improve an objective of selection by acting on several criteria of selection. The criteria of selection are composed by a subset of traits selected by its easiness of measure and its correlation with the objective of selection. In general, traits included on the criteria of selection are direct measures of the performance of candidates to selection. Fro...

The data on 171 Murrah buffaloes sired by 49 pertaining to lifetime performance traits were collected from history cum pedigree sheets maintained at Buffalo Research Centre (BRC), Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Hisar over a period of 20 years from 1990 to 2009. Analysis of variance done by restricted maximum likelihood method of Harvey (1990) using mixed linear re...