GENETIC AND PHENOTYPIC PARAMETERS FOR ALEUTIAN DISEASE TESTS AND THEIR CORRELATIONS WITH PELT QUALITY, REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE, PACKED-CELL VOLUME, AND HARVEST LENGTH IN MINK

Abstract

The ineffective current methods in controlling Aleutian disease (AD) have urged mink farmers to select AD resilient mink based on some AD tests, however, little is known about their genetic and phenotypic parameters. In this thesis, we estimated the genetic and phenotypic parameters of four AD tests, including two systems of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), counterimmunoelectrophoresis test (CIEP), and iodine agglutination test (IAT), and their genetic and phenotypic correlations with pelt quality, reproductive performance, packed-cell volume (PCV), and harvest length (HL). Estimated heritabilities (±SE) were 0.39±0.05, 0.61±0.07, 0.11±0.07, and 0.26±0.05 for antigen-based ELISA (ELISA-G), virus capsid protein-based ELISA, CIEP, and IAT, respectively. The ELISA-G had a moderate repeatability (0.58±0.04) and significant (P<0.05) negative genetic correlations (±SE) with reproductive performance traits (from -0.41±0.16 to -0.49±0.12), PCV (-0.53±0.09), and HL (-0.45±0.16). These results indicated that ELISA-G had the potential to be an indicator for genetic selection of AD resilient mink.