Variation in autosomal and sex-linked genetic effects for growth traits in Markhoz goat using multivariate animal models

The present study was conducted to estimate autosomal and sex-linked genetic parameters by restricted maximum likelihood method using four different multivariate models for growth traits in Markhoz goat. Data were collected over a period of 23 years (1992–2014) from the breeding station of Markhoz goat. The studied growth traits were birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), 6-month weight (6WT), 9-month weight (9WT), and 12-month weight (12WT). The best model was determined by Akaike’s information criterion. Based on the best model, direct autosomal heritabilities of 0.18, 0.10, 0.12, 0.22, and 0.24 were obtained for BW, WW, 6WT, 9WT, and 12WT, respectively. On the other hand, estimates of direct sex-linked heritability for BW, WW, 6WT, 9WT, and 12WT were 0.02, 0.01, 0.002, 0.03, and 0.04, respectively. The maternal permanent environmental component was remarkable for growth traits. Direct autosomal additive genetic correlations among the traits were positive and varied from 0.11 between BW and 9WT to 0.95 between BW and WW. The positive correlations were also estimated for direct sex-linked additive genetic effect except between BW-6WT (− 0.07) and WW-6WT (−0.19). The result of this study indicated that sex-linked chromosome effect had more considerable influence at post-weaning traits.