Genetic and Phenotypic Relationships between Pubertal and Growth Characteristics of Gilts

Abstract

Data on 737 crossbred and purebred gilts were used to obtain heritability estimates for age at puberty (AGEPUB) and weight at puberty (WTPUB) and their genetic and pheno-typic correlations with birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), postweaning daily gain (ADG), adjusted age at 90.7 kg (AGE) and adjusted backfat at 90.7 kg (BF). The heritability estimates for AGEPUB were low to moderate (.19 and .40, based upon paternal and maternal half-sib estimates, respectively.) The genetic (r ) and phenotypic (r_) correlations between AGEPUB and BW (rg = -.07; rp = -.09), WW (rg = −.25; rp = −.19), ADG (rg = −.38; rp = −.34) and AGE (rg = .56; rp = .38) were favorable. The genetic and phenotypic correlations between AGEPUB and BF were .27 and .01, respectively.