A genetic global index for Bardigiano Horse selection

The present selection goal of the Bardigiano Horse, an ancient horse breed used for draft in the mountain areas in Parma and Piacenza Provinces (Northern Italy), is producing horses for saddle service. A genetic index for “height at withers” is used to obtain taller horses; a global genetic index (IGG) has been created to consider more traits, each of them important for the Bardigiano horse typicalness, using data from the linear morphological evaluation form. To obtain IGG, 18 different traits were genetically evaluated by BLUP –AM. The following effects were included in the model: additive genetic, evaluation herd group by evaluation year, month of birth, age at evaluation, in months, and sex of the animal. Heritability, genetic and environmental correlation for the morphological linear evaluation form traits and withers height were estimated. To consider the different variability of analysed traits, the genetic index of each trait was standardized. Finally, each standardized index was corrected for a given weight in IGG composition and the corrected indexes were added to obtain IGG. Genetic trend, calculated from year 1985 to year 2000 for males and females, was positive.