Estimates of heritability for growth and wool traits in Marwari sheep at arid region of Rajasthan  

Data on 4201 records of Marwari sheep maintained at Arid Region Campus of Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, Bikaner (Rajasthan) distributed over a period of 15 years (1996-2010) were analyzed for estimation of heritability of growth and wool traits. Traits studied were body weights from birth to yearling, average daily gains between adjacent stages of growth and greasy fleece yield of first and second clip. Heritability estimates from paternal half sib method were 0.23 ± 0.040, 0.65 ± 0.073, 0.83 ± 0.085, 0.72 ± 0.083 and 0.67 ± 0.085 for body weight at birth, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of ages, respectively, 0.72 ± 0.074, 0.41 ± 0.056 and 0.88 ± 0.093 for average daily gains during 0-3, 3-6 and 6-12 months of ages, respectively and 0.98 ± 0.090 and 0.37 ± 0.065 for greasy fleece yield of first and second clip, respectively. Moderate to high heritability estimates indicated the presence of high genetic variance and low environmental variance. Hence, individual selection may be done effectively for improvement in these traits.