Inbreeding and Offspring Sex Ratio in the Pygmy Hippopotamus (Cheoropsis liberiensis) Population Kept in Zoological Gardens.

The aim of this study was to estimate the inbreeding level and its impact on offspring sex ratio in the pygmy hippopotamus population kept in zoological gardens. Records of pygmy hippopotamus born between 1873-2013 were extracted from the international studbook. Totally, 1357 individuals originating from 148 breeding units were included (individuals with unknown sex were omitted). The offspring sex ratio is defined as the number of sons to the total number of progeny of each dam and sire. Spearman's rank correlation was employed to examine the relationships between the inbreeding level and offspring sex ratio. Inbreeding coefficients and individual increase in inbreeding coefficients (included as a linear co-variable) were examined as well as the geographic region and birth period using general linear models. The average inbreeding coefficient was 5.39%. The following sex proportion was observed for the inbred population: 57% and 43% for females and males, respectively. A significant relationship between inbreeding level of parents and their offspring sex ratio were estimated for European zoological gardens, whereas in others geographic regions the dependencies were insignificant.

Genetic variability of body weight in two goose strains under long-term selection.

Body weight is one of the most important traits in any genetic improvement program in geese for at least 2 reasons. First, measurements of the trait are very easy. Second, body weight is correlated with a number of other meat performance traits. However, the genetic background of body weight shows considerable complexity. Three genetic models (with direct, maternal genetic and permanent maternal environmental effects) were employed in this study. Records of 3076 individuals of maternal strain W11 and 2656 individuals of paternal strain W33 over 6 consecutive generations, kept in the pedigree farm of Koluda Wielka, were analysed. Body weight (in kilograms) was measured in weeks 8 (BW8) and 11 (BW11). The inbreeding levels in both populations were relatively low (0.14% and 0.02% for W11 and W33, respectively), therefore these effects were not included in the linear models to estimate genetic parameters. Three fixed effects (hatch period, sex and year) were included in each linear model. Two criteria (AIC, BIC) were used to check the goodness of fit of the models. The computations were performed by WOMBAT software. In general, the genetic parameter estimates varied across the traits, models and strains studied. Direct additive heritability estimates ranged from 0.0001 (for BW11 of W33) to 0.55 (for BW11 of W33). Maternal and total heritabilities were also variable. Estimates of ratios of direct-maternal effect covariance in phenotypic variance were both positive and negative, but they were negligible, whereas ratios of the permanent environmental maternal variance to phenotypic variance were close to zero. Both of the applied criteria of model adequacy indicate that the model with maternal genetic and environmental effects should be considered as optimal. Genetic trends were close to zero. It seems that they were influenced by long-term selection. Similar tendencies have been observed for phenotypic trends, as well.