sources of variation of the cattle secondary sex ratio变异来源的牛次要的性别比例.pdfVIP

Original article Sources of variation of the cattle secondary sex ratio P Astolfi S Tentoni2 di di e ‘A Università1Pavia, Dipartimento Genetica Microbiologia Buzzati Traverso’,’, via Abbiategrasso, 207, 27100 Pavia; Istituto2di Analisi Numerica del CNR, via Abbiategrasso, 209, 27100 Pavia, Italy (Received 9 March 1994; accepted 24 August 1994) Summary - The aim of this study was to establish the importance of genetic, biological and environmental factors which may affect sex ratio at birth in dairy cattle. Four main kinds of variations may be considered: heterogeneity between the mothers with respect to the probability of a male birth, variation in this probability according to parity within the progenies; correlation between the sexes of adjacent births, and breeders’ decisions. We developed models in which all or some of these factors were simultaneously included, and tested them on a sample of about 266 000 dams. The male birth proportion was found to be significantly heterogeneous between dams, increasing over time within progenies, and influenced by the breeder’s choice of stopping or continuing the dams’ reproductive career. The influence of the sex of a calf on the sex of the following one proved to be non-significant. secondary sex ratio / non-random variation / Markov dependency / dairy cattle Résumé - Facteurs de variation du taux de masculinité à la naissance chez les bovins. L’objectif de cette étude est d’évaluer l’importance des facteurs génétiques, bi- ologiques et environnementau! susceptibles d’influencer le taux de masculinité à la nais- sance chez les bovins laitiers. Quatre sources majeures de variation peuvent être con- sidérées : l’hétérogénéité entre les mères quant à la probabilité de la