This piece of work was conducted to investigate the genetic improvement of body weight (BW) in Black Bengal goat (BBG) in-situ through a community based breeding program under a low input production system. Data on a total of 466 individuals from three villages; Gangatia, Borochala and Pachpai at Bhaluka upazila in Mymensingh district from 2009 to 2015 with three progressive generations were taken for this work. Two breeding strategies (BS); mating among selected superior bucks and does (denoted as BS1) and mating existing does with selected superior bucks (denoted as BS2) were followed for mating plan of the community breeding program. A control or test group with mating among existing bucks and does (denoted as BS3) were also observed to compare with treatment groups. Phenotypic performance and genetic parameters for BW traits were studied. Data were analyzed by SPSS 17.0 and VCE 4.2.5. The average BW at birth, 3-month, 6-month, sexual maturity, 9-month, and 12-month were 1.42±0.03, 5.14±0.07, 8.48±0.17, 9.88±0.16, 11.75±0.16 and 15.19±0.16 kg, respectively, having significant effect for sex (p<0.05-p<0.001), generation (p<0.001) and BS (p<0.001). The heritability estimates for BW traits were medium ranging from 0.45 to 0.57. The genetic correlation (rg) and phenotypic correlation (rp) for BW traits were positive with low to high strengths (0.02 to 0.99 for rg and 0.17** to 0.99** for rp). The average realized responses due to selection in three progressive generations for BW traits varied from 0.123 to 0.480 kg per generation. It may be concluded that community based breeding program with selected superior bucks and does is very rationale under low input production system, as it improved BW in progressive generations. However, estimates of heritability and rg indicated further scope of improvement by continuous culling of inferior does and bucks in breeding program.
Phenotypic Performance and Response to Selection for Body Weight Traits of Black Bengal Goat (BBG) in a Community Breeding Program