Genes with major effects on wool traits detected in Finn cross
sheep
A.R. BRAY, D. O’CONNELL AND D.J. SAVILLE
AgResearch, P.O. Box 60, Lincoln 8152, New Zealand
NZSAP 2002 Abstract No. 18
Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production 62:
65-68
Two Finn sires with short wool staple lengths (Finn-S1 91 mm,
Finn-S2 107 mm) and two with long staple lengths (Finn-L1 147 mm,
Finn-L2 133 mm) were joined with Dorset Down (staple length 37-120 mm)
and Romney (staple length 105-166 mm) ewes. Over two years, each ram
sired between 83 and 210 progeny. Wool characteristics of progeny were
measured at 6 months of age. For all sire groups, distributions of fibre
diameter, fibre curvature, fibre medullation and clean fleece weight
were not significantly different from single normal distributions.
Similarly the distributions of fibre diameter coefficient of variation
(FDCV), staple-crimp frequency and staple length for progeny of Finn-S1,
Finn-S2 and Finn-L1 were close to unimodal. In contrast, the same three
traits for progeny of Finn-L2 fitted two normal distributions. For all
three traits, the mean value of one of the distributions of Finn-L2
progeny was similar to the means of the other three sire groups, while
the mean of the second distribution was 41% greater (FDCV), 65% greater
(staple length) or 67% less (crimp frequency) than that of the first.
These results suggest the presence of a gene or genes with major effects
on fibre traits.
Keywords: NZSAPAB;
fibre diameter variation; crimp frequency; staple length
Last Updated 30/07/2002
