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. 2023 Mar 9;13(6):991.
doi: 10.3390/ani13060991.

Reproductive Performance of Tunisian Arabian Stallions: A Study on the Variance and Estimation of Heritability

Mariem Jlassi  1 , Bayrem Jemmali  1 , Hadda Imen Ouzari  2 , Faten Lasfer  3 , Belgacem Ben Aoun  3 , Abderrahmane Ben Gara  1
Affiliations

Reproductive Performance of Tunisian Arabian Stallions: A Study on the Variance and Estimation of Heritability

Mariem Jlassi et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

A consistently high level of stallion fertility plays an economically important role in modern horse breeding. To better understand the factors affecting variation in stallion fertility, we have performed a statistical analysis study on some breeding factors: year of breeding, stud farm, age of the stallion, number of covered mares per stallion, reproduction methods, and age of the mare. This work was conducted on 94 purebred Arabian stallions in four different regions of Tunisia. The results showed an increase in the number of stallions during the study period, ranging from 11.33% in 2011 to 13.29% in 2018. Sidi Thabet's stud farm contained the highest number of purebred Arabian stallions. The majority of stallions were between 15 and 21 years old and had covered 1 to 20 mares; 95.19% of stallions were used in natural mating (Nat); 50.36% had low fertility, 17.69% had medium fertility, and 32.3% had excellent fertility according to fertility standards. Depending on the year and stud, there was a variation in fertility per cycle (FERPCE) and end-of-season fertility (FERPSE) of the stallions. The highest average FERPCE and FERPSE values were obtained using artificial insemination with fresh semen (AIF). Analysis of FERPCE and FERPSE showed that the model used in our study explained 40.21% of total variability observations for FERPCE and 42.1% for FERPSE. The used statistical model showed that the breeding year, the stud, the age of the stallion, the number of covered mares by stallions and the method of reproduction significantly affected both FERPCE and FERPSE (with p = 0.001). Low to moderate heritability estimations for FERPCE (hs2 = 0.08) and FERPSE (hes2 = 0.36) were obtained.

Keywords: Tunisia; end-of-season fertility; fertility per cycle; heritability; stallion.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of stallions according to the breeding years between 2011 and 2018.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of stallions (a) and mares (b) according to their age.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mating results.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The number of mares covered per stallion.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Variation of fertility according to the breeding year.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Variation of fertility according to the breeding place.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Variation of fertility according to the method of reproduction.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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