Objective: The objectives of our study were to estimate the effect of some non-genetic factors on production and reproduction traits of Egyptian buffaloes and to estimate the breeding values for these traits.Materials and Methods: Data from 965 lactation records of 305 Egyptian buffalo cows mated by 73 sires that were raised at Mahallet Mousa Experimental farms of Animal Production Research Institute were collected. Dairy records covered the period from 2001 to 2015. The data were arranged and statistically analyzed using SAS version 9.1.3 to study the effect of non-genetic factors and the MTDFREMAL program was included in estimating the expected breeding values.Results: Our results showed that buffalo cows that calved in winter season recorded the highest and significant total milk yield (TMY) and daily milk yield (DMY) traits and the best reproductive performance was indicated by the lower number of services per conception and the shortest calving interval (CI) period. Moreover, age at first calving and dry period (DP) showed a highly significant effect on the TMY and DMY. A significant effect for the level of milk production on days open (DO) period was recorded in our study. The range of sires EBV was 540 kg, 295.2 days, 113.9 days, 2.8 months, and 71.1 days for TMY, LL, DO, CI, and DP, respectively.Conclusion: Buffalos breeders must consider the season of calving, parity, and DP in management program because they greatly affect the farm productivity and profitability and they must select animals with higher breeding values to be the parent of the next generation. [J Adv Vet Anim Res 2018; 5(4.000): 374-380]

The objectives of this study were to estimate heritability and breeding value for some economic traits and the impact of some environmental factors on these traits in Holstein dairy cattle in Egypt. The data of 10034 records for 3295 Holstein cows were studied during the period from 1998 to 2021 in El-Alamia farm which is belonging to Universal Company for Agricultural Development and Soil Reclamation and has a commercial dairy herd located at Nubaria region in the K 90 Alex - Cairo desert road. The traits under study were: Total milk yield (TMY, kg), 305-day milk yield (305-dMY, kg), Lactation length (LL, day), Dry period (DP, day), Days open (DO, day), Calving interval (CI, month) and Gestation length (GL, day). The results showed that all traits under study were significantly influenced by parity. Also, the calving year has a significant effect on the studied traits except for gestation length. In the same trend, the effect of calving season was significant in all traits except lactation length and gestation length. Heritability estimates were 0.265, 0.393, 0.488, 0.238, 0.12, 0.138 and 0.57 for TMY, 305-dMY, LL, DP, DO, CI and GL, respectively. Cow breeding values for TMY, 305-dMY, LL, DP, DO, CI and GL ranged from -957 to 2170.5 kg, from -2432.75 to 2713.75 kg, from -266.25 to 340 days, from -114 to 100.25, from -105.75 to 164 days, from -13.9 to 13.18 months and from -0.33 to 0.45 days, respectively. Dams breeding values ranged from -823.5 to 1364.25 kg, from -1076.75 to 1531.75 kg, from -139.75 to 186.5 days, from -79.75 to 46.5, from -58.25 to 82 days, from -8.23 to 8.63 months and from -0.28 to 0.53 days, respectively. Sires breeding values ranged from -1057.75 to 1082 kg, from -1458 to 1549.25 kg, from -219.25 to 292.75 days, from -79.5 to 85.25 days, from -75.5 to 89 days, from -8.7 to 7.08 months and from -0.58 to 0.60 days, respectively. In conclusion, heritability values for all traits under study were low to moderate except for gestation length was a high value, so the most useful way to improve the traits under the study would be by improving the management level. Also, an estimated cow's breeding value has a wide range than sires' or dams' breeding value revealing a higher genetic variance and a good chance of selecting superior cows.

A total of 5844 normal lactation records on 1483 Holstein-Friesian cows were collected from El-Alamiah dairy farm in Egypt through the period from 1996 to 2018 to study the effect of the length of dry period on the subsequent lactation performance by evaluating the performance of milk production traits, lifetime traits and some welfare factors of Holstein-Friesian cows, raised in Egypt, to determine the best length of dry period. The milk production traits studied were total milk yield (TMY, kg), 305 days milk yield (305-d MY, kg) and lactation length (LL, day). The lifetime performance traits under study were complete lactation number (CLN, no.), productive life length (PL, month), longevity length (Lon, month), lifetime total milk yield (LTY, kg) and lifetime daily milk yield (LDY, kg). Welfare factors studied were mastitis and lameness scores.  TMY, 305 d-MY and LL tended to increase with increasing DP length up to 90 d then decreased thereafter. While the lowest TMY and 305 d-MY (6470.76 and 5435.25 kg, respectively) and the shortest LL (305.81 d) were obtained when DP was below 31. Cows had DP category of 61 to 75d produced the largest amount of milk (34506.39 kg) in a longest Lon and PL (90.56 and 62.65 mo., respectively) and attained the biggest number of CLN (4.474 lactations). All lifetime traits tended to increase with increasing DP up to 61 to 75d then decreased thereafter. The 61 to 75 d DP had the largest mastitis number (0.3532), while DP category of 76 to 90d was associated with the highest lameness number (0.7976). However, no trends were observed in these traits with different DP length categories. The correlation coefficients between DP and all productive traits were significantly negative and ranged between -0.064 to -0.038. DP had no significant correlations with the health traits. Generally, the dry period of 61-75 days is the most optimum for Holstein Cows raised under subtropical warm climate. However, more studies to confirm these results under the Egyptian conditions are required.

The Republican Agricultural Breeding Unitary Enterprise Zarechje of the Republic of Belarus is the basic horse-breeding enterprise of Belarusian coach horse breeding. In the enterprise there are 27 mares and 2 studhorses; all animals are purebred. It is established, that unaltered male horses and mares belong to Belarus coaching breed, all pedigree animals have a high class: 15 horses belong to an elite class that makes 75% from all herd, 4 heads concern the first class (20%), and 1 head – to the second class (5%). Measurements surpass the standard that can prove the appropriate selection and breeding work in the enterprise. After studying the measurements of studhorses of the enterprise in comparison with the standard it was established, that the height at crest of stallions on the average exceeds the breed standard on 30%, slanting length of a trunk - on 5,0%, a breast grasp - on 4,0% and a metacarpus grasp - on 6%. For improvement of herd of horses it is necessary to organize correctly a coupling campaign with drawing up of the coupling plan and selection of a uterus to stallions; to use in copulation only the best elite stallion.