The objective of this research was to compare the effects of different doses of application of sodic cloprostenol (doses equivalent to 50% the conventional), in the intramuscular (IM) and intra-vulvosubmucosal (IVSM) vias on the synchronization rates, interval of application to estrus and decrease of seric progesterone concentrations. One hundred and ninety-nine females, 103 with of previus report estrous and 96 without report of previus estores evaluated by rectal palpation to verify the presence of corpus luteum, were randomly divided into […]

Heritability estimates of growth traits are essential informations in animal breeding programs. In this paper, 869 heritability estimates of birth weight, weaning weight, weight at 365 days old and weight at 550 days old, of 186 reports were compiled. The estimates were divided in groups using the Ward method of cluster analysis, and pooled by meta-analysis. It was observed, for all traits, that groups from Nelore breed, majority in Brasil, showed greater pooled heritability estimates than the other groups. The […]

Records of milk and fat yields were used to study the effects of sire x herd and sire x herd-year interactions on genetic values of Brown Swiss breed sires. The (co)variance components were estimated by the restricted maximum likelihood method, by using three models with multitrait. In these models, the genetic group, season of calving and herd-year class were considered as fixed effects, while the animal effects, the permanent environment, the interaction of either sire x herd or sire x […]

A meta-analysis was conducted to summarize published heritability of estimates growth traits of zebu beef cattle of 186 reports. The factors affecting weighed heritability estimates were analyzed by the least square means method for a model including fixed effects. Breed and estimation method were the significant factors in the four traits (birth weight, weaning weight, weight at 365 days and weight at 550 days). Estimation method is always recommeded to summarize these estimates. The pooled heritability estimates for birth weight, […]

Covariance components for test day records and lactation milk yield using 263.390 records of 32.448 first lactation Holstein cows, were estimated using animal models by REML. Besides the lactation model, two alternative repeatability models (RM) were analyzed. Lactation model included fixed effects of herd-year-season and age of cow with linear and quadratic terms, and random effects of animal and error. The first model for test-day yield (RMF) included the same effects, but fixed effect of contemporary group, defined as herd-year-month […]

The aims of this research were to determine economic selection indices in order to reach the target objective for a Caracu cattle nucleus. The breeding objective (H) considered a dual purpose breed producing milk and weaning calves. The biological traits affecting income and expenses considered in H were: total milk yield, age at first calving, number of days open, weaning weight, and productive lifetime. Two economic selection indices were calculated. The selection criteria included in Index 1 were first lactation […]

The properties of seven nonlinear models were discussed concerning its applications in the fitting of growth curves in animal production. The models used: Brody, Richards, Von Bertalanffy and two alternatives of Gompertz and Logistic models, were fitted by Gauss Newton method to weight-age data from eight animal species: freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergi, pepper frog, rabbit, poultry, sheep, goat, swine and cattle. Considering results of the fitted models such as convergence or not, coefficient of determination and biological interpretation of parameters, […]

A data set with 16,592 records from the Brazilian Zebu Breeders Association obtained from 1978 to 1994, was used to estimate genetic parameters for preweaning average daily gain (ADG) and number of days to gain 160 kg (D160) in Gyr cattle. The (co)variance components and heritabilities were estimated by the restricted maximum likelihood derivative free method. Two models were used: the first one considered contemporary group (CG) as fixed effect and additive direct and maternal genetic effects, maternal permanent environment […]

Two different preweaning selection criteria in Gyr cattle: average daily gain from birth to weaning (ADG) and number of days to gain 160 kg from birth to weaning (D160) were evaluated in this study. Records from the Brazilian Zebu Breeders Association obtained from 1978 to 1994, were studied. (Co)variance components and heritabilities were estimated by restricted maximum likelihood derivative free method, and expected breeding values (EBV) were predicted using an single trait animal model. In the model, contemporary group was […]

The objectives of this work were to estimate the genetic parameters and the genetic trends of the direct and maternal effects for the trait days to gain 160 kg (D160) in the pre-weaning period, and of the direct effect for the trait days to gain 240 kg (D240) in the post-weaning period, of animals of Nellore breed, born from 1965 to 2001 in the Northeast region of Brazil. The analyses were carried out using the MTDFREML software. For D160 the […]