Efectos ambientales y parámetros genéticos de variables de crecimiento para un reba？o de ciervo rojo (Cervus elaphus) en cautiverio

the objective was to estimate environmental effects and genetic parameters on growth traits in a flock of farmed red deer of the central mexican highland. animals were raised on an intensive rotational grazing system of grass-legume mixed temperate pastures. evaluated traits were birth (bw), weaning adjusted to 100 d (ww) and yearling (yw) weights. analyses were performed using the mtdfreml program. final univariate animal models considered the fixed effect of sex-year, and calving age as a covariate for bw and ww, and the random direct (bw, ww and yw) and maternal (ww) genetic effects. means and standard deviations for bw, ww and yw were 8.7±1.2, 42.4±5.6 and 80.8±13.3 kg. males were higher (p<0.05) than those of females (4.6, 9.9 and 21.9 %, for bw, ww and yw). there were differences between contemporary groups for all traits (p<0.05). the linear effect of hind calving age was important (p<0.05) for both bw and ww. estimates of direct heritability were 0.00±0.08, 0.41 ±0.33 and 0.17±0.15 for bw, ww and yw. maternal heritability of ww was 0.22±0.16. based on the estimated genetic additive variability of ww and yw in this herd, the results suggest the possibility for genetic improvement of those traits through selection; however, these results are not definitive given the limited quantity and quality of the used information.