ÉTUDE SUR LES PORCS DE RACE CONTRÔLÉS À LA FERME AU QUÉBEC. 2. ESTIMATION DES PARAMÈTRES GÉNÉTIQUES ET PHÉNOTYPIQUES
Variance and covariance components were estimated from 94 161 observations of growth and backfat taken on purebred pigs born from 8561 sows and 1431 boars. The mixed model used had herd, year-season, parents' birth years, gender and parity number as fixed effects and sire and dam as random effects. Each breed, Yorkshire, Landrace, Hampshire and Duroc, was studied separately. Several statistical methods of estimation were used but resulting values of heritability were generally quite similar. Heritability of growth traits obtained from MIVQUEO (minimum variance quadratic unbiased estimation) was between 0.21 and 0.40, depending on the breed. Heritability of backfat depth was larger, from 0.49 to 0.77. Genetic correlation of daily gain and backfat varied between 0.08 and 0.56; it was between −0.09 and −0.56 for age at 90 kg and backfat. Corresponding phenotypic correlations were smaller in absolute value but had the same sign as genetic correlations. Key words: Pigs, heritabilities, correlations, backfat, growth, index