GENETIC EVALUATION OF BEHAVIOURAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS IN MURGESE HORSE

Murgese horses can be used for many purposes: dressage, therapeutic and educational aids, equine tourism, mounted police, etc.. This study aims to assess the hereditability of morphological and temperamental traits to be included in future genetic selection programmes. A database concerning 711 males and females Murgese subjects, born from 1927 to 2013, and their morphological traits (height at withers, chest girth, and cannon bone circumference) assessed at 3 years of age was used. In addition, for 103 out of 711 animals, a questionnaire on temperament with 15 items was submitted to 11 caretakers and owners. The respondents rated each item on a 9-point scale labeled at the left end with “attribute absent” (score=1), at the right end with “attribute very strong” (score=9). Data were analysed using the Restricted Maximum Likelihood methodology applied to a multiple-traits animal model. A VCE software was used. The fixed effects were: sex, year of birth and caretaker; the inbreeding coefficient was estimated with SAS proc inbreed and used as covariate (SAS, 2007); random effects were the animal and the residual error. The mean inbreeding coefficient of our sample (animals born from 2010 to 2013) was 6.3±2.42% and 7.51±1.13% for males and females, respectively. Hereditability ranged from 0.24 to 0.38, and was highest for concentration (0.35), trainability (0.36) and consistent emotionality (0.38). Morphological traits were not significantly correlated with temperamental traits. However, significant and positive correlations were found between chest girth vs cannon bone circumference (0.60; P<0.001), and between height at withers vs chest girth and cannon bone circumference (0.54 and 0.48, respectively; P<0.001). Genetic correlations between temperamental traits were all positive although they were moderate (with value under 0.42). In particular, friendliness towards people, low reactivity to noise, responsiveness to commands, ease of gate entrance were positively correlated with learning ability (0.27, 0.25, 0.35, 0.30, respectively). Concentration was positively correlated with responsiveness to commands (0.36), friendliness towards people (0.28), trainability (0.29), learning ability (0.42) and consistent emotionality (0.40). The high heritability values observed in this study suggest that temperamental traits could be used as selection targets to specialize the animals according to different breeding purposes.