Ahmad Fahrudin Husen, Muhammad Pramujo, Kuswati Kuswati, Maria Ulfah, Suyadi Suyadi, Muhammad Sairi, Andoni Reza Nugroho, Richard Pma Crooijmans, Veronica Margareta Ani Nurgiartiningsih
Enhancing genetic improvement in tropical dairy goats requires breeding objectives Integrating productivity, udder conformation, and thermoregulation. This study quantified the multivariate genetic architecture of Peranakan Etawa (PE) goats under tropical management using 128 lactating does. Significant environmental effects were identified using GLM and incorporated into a REML animal model to estimate genetic parameters and breeding values(EBVs), followed by EBV-based Spearman correlations and PCA. Parity and year of kidding significantly affected milk yield and udder traits (p < 0.050), whereas birth type affected udder circumference after milking (p = 0.001). Heritability ranged from 0.191 (HH) to 0.621 (UC_A), with post-milking udder traits showing high additive control (h2 = 0.553–0.621) and milk yield (h2 = 0.393). Strong genetic correlations were observed between body weight and chest girth (BW–CG ra = 0.963) and positive milk udder alignment (MYP–UC_B ra = 0.708; MYP–UW_A ra = 0.604), supported by phenotypic and EBV-rank concordance (BW–CG rₛ = 0.952; MYP–UC_B rₛ = 0.754). PCA of EBVs resolved five components explaining 90.229% of of total genetic variance, distinguishing productivity, udder, and thermoregulatory traits. These findings demonstrate a structured genetic architecture linking productivity, udder conformation, and thermoregulatory traits in PE goats and support multi-trait selection strategies to improve productivity and adaptive capacity under tropical conditions. © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Graduate Program, Faculty of Animal Science, Brawijaya University, East Java, Malang, Indonesia; Faculty of Animal Science, Brawijaya University, East Java, Malang, Indonesia; BPTU-HPT Pelaihari, Ministry of Agriculture Republic Indonesia, South Kalimantan, Tanah Laut Regency, Indonesia; Department of Animal Science, IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia; Animal Breeding and Genomics, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands
