Phenotypic plasticity of Cuban Zebu sires evaluated in different Cuban regions

Resumen

The phenotypic plasticity of Cuban Zebu sires from their progenies performance test in different regions of the country was analyzed. A number of 15293 weight records at 18 months of animals born in five Cuban enterprises in 1981-2012 were considered. A single-trait animal model allowed evaluating all animals together and consequently, to each individual enterprise. In both cases, the random effects of the individual and error, fixed of the
contemporary group and age at the start of the test as quadratic covariate are included. In all enterprises the heritabilities and Spearman correlations between the breeding values of sires with offspring were obtained. The hertabilities were of 0.239 ± 0.047, 0.244 ± 0.056, 0.284 ± 0.040, 0.261 ± 0.044 and 0.153 ± 0.065, for “Camilo Cienfuegos”, “San Juan”, “Rodas” and “Rescate de Sanguily” and genetic and rearing “Manuel Fajardo”, respectively. Breeding values varied between -29.31 and 36.51 kg. "Rodas" and "Rescate de Sanguily" cattle enterprises were of higher range, while the Genetic and Rearing Enterprise "Manuel Fajardo" showed low fluctuations, but higher mean (6.94). Positive and low correlations between breeding values (0.28 - 0.58) indicated the phenotypic plasticity existence, that is manifested in changes in the ranking. It is concluded that it could assess the use, not only of robust animals (which behave appropriately in all regions of the country), but animals with phenotypic plasticity and higher breeding values for a specific region. It achieves increase in live weight.

Key words: Cuban Zebu, genotype - environment interaction, region