Co‐Segregation of Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) Affecting Pre‐Weaning Traits for Fat‐Tailed Ghezal Sheep in Chromosome 1

This study exploited the co-segregation of quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting pre-weaning traits in Ghezal sheep. Two half-sib families (n=71) were genotyped for 8 informative microsatellite markers cover-ing chromosome 1. Data for production traits (birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), average dairy gains (ADG) and Kleiber ratio (KBR) were collected. Investigated microsatellite loci were successfully amplified in progenies and allele numbers per locus ranged from 2 (CSSM11) to 10 (MAF109). Two mod-els used for estimation of QTL effect were across families and individual families. QTL mapping were con-ducted using online GridQTL. The results show that two the QTL retained significance (P≤0.01) for BW and KRB at the region of flanking markers CSSM019-CSSM032 and BM1312 respectively. Further studies will be useful using more families, animals and chromosome number for identification of co-segregation of QTL affecting pre-weaning traits in Ghezal sheep.