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Genetic Component of Endurance Ability
Author(s) -
Younes M,
Robert C,
Cottin F,
Barrey E
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
equine veterinary journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.82
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 2042-3306
pISSN - 0425-1644
DOI - 10.1111/evj.12267_46
Subject(s) - heritability , sire , restricted maximum likelihood , heart rate , population , statistics , zoology , demography , biology , medicine , mathematics , maximum likelihood , genetics , blood pressure , sociology
Arabian horses have the best records in long distance endurance racing (80–160 km). The endurance horses are interesting models to calculate the heritability (h 2 ) of exercise ability. Heritability indicates the percentage of trait transmitted by parents to their descendants (h 2 = Genetic variance/Total variance). In human athletes, heritability of physiological traits calculated using twin design were 0.12, 0.72 and 0.32 for VO 2max , Heart Rate max and endurance capacity respectively. Heritabilities of 0.28 and 0.06 for speed and placing respectively are reported in endurance horses. The aim of this study was to calculate the heritability of recovery heart rate, cardiac recovery time and average speed in long distance endurance racing. Methods The results of 132 endurance races (80–160 km) from 2007 to 2011 were analyzed. The database included 4421 horses of known pedigrees representing 655 sires with a mean of 18.5 products per sire. The data were analyzed using Restricted Estimator of Maximal Likelihood ( REML , VCE6 ) method with animal mixed model including country, ride distance, age, gender, common environment as fixed effects and animal genetic as random effect. Results Heritabilities ( SE ) were 0.12 (0.06), 0.15 (0.02) and 0.46 (0.08) for speed, recovery heart rate and cardiac recovery time respectively. Conclusions The speed and heart rate recovery seem more influenced by training and environmental effects than the cardiac recovery time which is more influenced by genetics. This high heritability is consistent with heritability of V200 found in French Trotter population previously and may indicate a putative quantitative trait linkage. Ethical Animal Research E xplicit owner informed consent for participation in this study is not stated. Sources of funding: National Studs ( IFCE ) and the Arabian Horse Association ( ACA ). Competing interests: none.