ESTIMATION OF VARIANCE COMPONENTS FOR BODYWEIGHT OF GRASSCUTTERS USING EXPECTATION MAXIMIZATION (EM) ALGORITHM OF RESTRICTED MAXIMIMUM LIKELIHOOD (REMI)

Abstract

The objective of this study was to estimate the variance components and heritability of bodyweight of grass-cutters at 4, 6 and 8 111011ths of age using EM algorithm of REML procedures. The data used for the study were obtained from the bodyweight records of grass-cutters from 4 families at 4, 6 and 8 months of age. The heritability of bodyweight of grasscutters at 4, 6 and 8 months of age were 0.14, 0.10 and 0.12 respectively. This implies that about 10 14 % of the phenotypic variability of body weight in this grasscutter population was accounted by additive genetic variance while environmental and gene combination variance made a larger contribution. The implication is that selection of grasscutters in this population should not be based on the in on the animals alone but also information from its relatives.