Estimation of genetic parameters in German meat and land sheep breeds

Genetic parameters were estimated for performance traits in the meat sheep breeds German Black-headed mutton, German mutton merino, Leine, Texel, Suffolk, German white-headed mutton and Bleu du Maine and the milk sheep breeds East Friesian milk sheep white and black-brown variant. Data of sheep breeding organisations from Lower Saxony and Westphalia were used that had been collected at the days of licensing and of herdbook registration. The performance traits included score for muscle mass, wool quality and type. Herd-year-season, test day, sex, birth rearing type were considered as fixed effects, and age at licensing as linear covariate in the statistical models. Muscle mass and type were genetically correlated highly positive in both, meat sheep breeds and milk sheep breeds. The estimation of genetic correlations between wool quality and type or wool quality and muscle mass were low in both, meat sheep breeds and milk sheep breeds. The heritabilities ranged between h2= 0.10 and h2= 0.19 for muscle mass and between h2= 0.05 and h2= 0.14 for type. The biggest range of h2= 0.09 to h2= 0.25 was estimated for wool quality.

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