GENETIC DETERMINISM ESTIMATE FOR THE MASTITIS RESISTANCE IN ROMANIAN BUFFALO

Dana Popa, Livia Vidu, R. Popa, Gh. Mărginean, Nicoleta Defta, V. Băcilă, A. Bota

Abstract
   The Romanian Buffalo is one of the most important genetic resources for milk and meat production, but the sharp decline in the livestock and in the absence of adequate financial support, it can disappear at any time.In this respect, it is very important to develop efficient breeding programs or active conservation (according to risk status) to improve population for characters associated with these productions.
   The objective of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for milk somatic cells count, character that significantly affect the health of animals and milk constituents that gives its quality. Also, this character could allow a selection of individuals in the direction of resistance to mastitis. A total 609 milk yield and associated characters records, belonging to 87 females, which coming from 11 sire families, for 7 lactations were analyzed. The method used for genetic parameters estimates was REML.
   Study has revealed the existence of a poor genetic determinism for somatic cell count and a high variability of character analyzed according to number of lactation. The results indicate that environmental factors have a greater contribution to the phenotypic manifestation of character. So, the number of somatic cells must be exclusively an indicator of milk hygiene and not included in selection objective of buffaloes (resistance to mastitis).

Key words: buffaloes, genetic parameters, somatic cells count