Genetic Correlation and Heritabilities of Performance Traits among Three Pig Genotypes

Fifty four pigs (twenty five Duroc, twenty one Large white and eight crosses of Duroc and Large white (Hybrid)) were used to describe the performance traits of pigs. The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic correlation among the linear body measurements of three pig genotypes and the heritabilities of body weight at different ages. The pigs were averagely 30 kg of body weight and 70 days of age at the beginning of the study. Records for body weight (BW), body length (BL), trunk length(TRL), height at withers(HW), chest girth(CG), tail length(TL), shoulder to tail length(STL) were used for the analysis. The estimate of genetic parameters showed that heritabilities were low for individual weights at 21, 35 and 56 days of the experiment ranging from 0.087 to 0.132. The correlation of body weight and linear measurements in the study were positive. The chest girth (CG) and height at withers (HW) had the highest and strongest relationship (r=0.83, 0.82 respectively) with body weight among other linear measurements.