HERITABILITY ESTIMATES FOR SOME GROWTH TRAITS IN LOCAL GOATS

Records of 356 kids born during 1993-1995 at Agarguf Goat station, 11'A Center for Agricultural Research were used to extimate the heritability of first, second, fourth, fifth, and ninth month of age; Components of variance for the random effects of mathematical model was estimated by the Restricted Maximum Likelihood procedure by using paternal hlaf-sib method after adjusting the data for the fixed factors (year of birth, age of doc, sex of kids, type of birth and weight of doe at kidding as covariate). Heritability estimates 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 9th months of age +/- standard error were 0.73 +/- 0.18, 0.36 +/- 0.03, 0.20 +/- 0.09, 0.17 +/- 0.06 and 0.14 +/- 0.14, respectively. The decrease in heritability estimates with the advancement of the age of kids may be explained on the basis that these animals were kept under less favourable conditions.