A total of 1400 records of Egyptian Buffaloes kept at three Farms i.e. Mehallet
'nousa , Sides and Gimmeza, belonging to Ministry of Agriculture, during the period
form 1985 to 2004 were used in this investigation. Genetic and phenotypic parameters
of total milk yield (TMY), lactation pericd (LP) and calvmg interval (CI) were estimated
by two methods is Best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) and MTDFREML usmg an
animal model. The model included individual , and error terms as random effects,
Farm. season and year of calving and parity as fixed effects and ageat first calving
and days open as a covariate.
Estimates of heritability were0.16,0.35 and 0.49 for TMY, LP and Cl.
respectively, Predicted cows breeding values (CBV's) ranged from —214 to 410 kg for
TMY, 29 to 29d for LP and —36 to 30 for CI. Also. predicted sires breeding values
(SBV'S) ranged between —293 to 173kg,- 63 to 69d and —37 to 40d, for the same
traits, respectively estimated by (BLUF). But by animal model were (CBV'S) ranged
form -533 to 547kg for TMY,-89 to 96d for LP and -71 to 72d for Cl, reflectively, while
(SBV'S) ranged between —246 and 261 kg, -44 and 43d and -35 and 36d , for the
same previous traits . respectively,
The accuracy of (SBV'S) ranges from 30-46% ,while, (SBV'S) ranges from 25—
77% estimates by (BLUP). But. the accuracy of (SBV'S) ranges from 54—87% , while
(SBV‘S) ranges from 24—87% estimated by animal model
The results to conclude that using the multiple — trait analysis is recommended
to obtain more accurate breeding values for TMY because it make use of all the
information about the lactations and the covariances among them as well as
relationships between the relatives in the different traits.