Heritability and genetic trends for growth and fur quality traits in silver blue mink

Abstract

The present study was performed to estimate genetic parameters for growth and fur quality traits in Chinese silver blue mink. Recordings of body weight (BW), body length (BL), guard hair length (GL), underwool length (UL) and the rate of guard hair and underwool length from 1678 silver blue minks (280 male and 1398 female) spanning six generations were obtained from Dalian Ming Wei Marten Industry Company. Genetic parameters were estimated using a multi-trait animal model with year and sex as fixed effects. The heritability estimates for BW, BL, GL, UL and RATE were 0.41, 0.53, 0.53, 0.52 and 0.52, respectively. The genetic trends were estimated by regressing breeding value on year. The genetic trends for body weight and body length were close to zero, and positive. The genetic changes for GL, UL and nap were negative and parallel. Our results herein form a practical basis for designing optimal breeding schemes in silver blue mink.

Keywords

• Silver blue mink
• genetic parameter
• breeding value
• BLUP