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The aim of this work was to estimate the effects of eight non-genetic factors (sex, type of coat, pigmentation, type of the trial, the number of the judges in the jury, the location where the competition took place, the subjectivity of the judge and the breeders) on the assessment of seven hunting traits (morphology, the breed style, search, approach, find, pursuit and voice) for the short-haired and rough-haired Italian Hound. The data consisted of 3172 field trial records between the years 2016 and 2017. The Mann–Whitney test and Kruskal–Wallis test showed that each factor was statistically significant for some traits: the sex of the dogs was statistically significant only for the evaluation of the morphology the type of coat for breed style, search, approach, find and voice; the pigmentation for all traits excluding approach; the number of judges for morphology, approach and find; the type of trial for all traits excluding voice. Spearman’s ρ (rho) correlation showed that high phenotypic correlations were between morphology, breed style and search. These traits showed low to moderate correlations with the other traits except breed style and search vs. pursuit. Furthermore, principal component analysis for the factor judge, location and breeders showed that among the seven traits assessed during the trials, the morphology and the breed style had the highest loading on the final score. Our results suggest that the effect of all the non-genetic factors analysed must be taken into account by the judges during the evaluation of the dogs.Highlights We evaluated the effects of eight non-genetic factors on the assessment of seven hunting traits for the Italian Hound. All the non-genetic factors had influence on some of the hunting traits considered. Principal component analysis showed that the highest loading for morphology and breed style are on location, judge and breeder. High phenotypic correlations were between morphology, breed style, search and pursuit.

In cashmere production studies, few trials have considered the guard hair features and their correlation with down fiber attributes. In this preliminary work, early observations on 158 one year old Chinese Alashan Left Banner White Cashmere goats were carried out. The aim was to describe the phenotypic correlation between the guard hair length and other fiber traits. The guard hair length was positively correlated with guard hair diameter and the down fiber length. Negative correlations were found between guard hair length and the coefficient of variation of guard hair diameter, between the guard hair diameter and its coefficient of variation, and between the down fiber diameter and the coefficient of variation of down fiber diameter. The body weight at first combing was not correlated with any of the other traits.

The heritability and the phenotypic and genetic correlations of down weight (DW), down fibre diameter (DFD), and coefficient of variation of the down fibre diameter (CVDFD) of Chinese Alashan Left Banner White Cashmere goat were estimated on 1375 one-year-old animals, born in 2009, 2011 and 2013 and bred at the Station for Livestock Improvement of Alashan (Left Banner, Inner Mongolia, P.R. China). For all traits, significant effects were for sex, cohort and sex–cohort interaction (p

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of four non-genetic factors (sex, coat colour, competition judges, type of trial) on the five hunting traits (search, approach, tracking of prey, standstill barking and physical skills) used to estimate the aptitude for wild boar hunt in Italian Maremma Scent Hound. A total of 1147 dogs (734 males, 399 females, and 14 not sexed dogs) were evaluated in competitions held in North-Central Italy, from 2010 to 2011. Dogs were tested as individuals, pairs and packs. Coat colour had no effect on the five tested traits. A significant difference (p

The inheritance of the two types of fleece, Suri and Huacaya, observed in Alpaca (Lama pacos L.) is still not clearly defined. The objective of this work is to investigate the patter of inheritance of these two phenotypes, throughout 588 Suri x Suri and 2126 Huacaya x Huacaya offspring. The single gene and the three two-phenotype epistatic models were tested in the 19 Suri x Suri segregating families. The single dominant gene hypothesis best fitted our segregation data and could be, therefore, accepted (GT=20.276, P=0.378). The gene frequency of the recessive Huacaya allele was 0.295, being the frequency of the dominant Suri allele 0.705. The frequency of heterozygotes, estimated in the whole population and among dominant individuals, was 0.416 and 0.455, respectively, with a “carrier” Suri to Huacaya ratio of 4.780. In three Huacaya families, 3 Suri were born, as a result of a new dominant mutation on some germinal lines of Huacaya animals. The direct mutation rate can be estimated at 0.0014.

The amount of melanin pigments was investigated in 95 Peruvian alpaca, representative of six different fleece colours, by means of spectrophotometric assays: SpEM (Spectrophoto­metric Eumelanin), SpPM (Spectrophotometric Pheomelanin), SpASM (Spectrophotometric Alkali Soluble Melanin), and SpTM (Spectro­photometric Total Melanin). It was found that these melanin pigments were suitable for identifying three homogeneous groups, each consisting of two closely related colours. A low, an intermediate, and a high amount of SpASM, SpTM, and SpPM characterize pinkish grey and light reddish brown, brown and reddish brown, dark reddish brown and black fleeces, respectively. SpEM and SpTM provide a further split within this latter group; higher concentrations of these pigments distinguish black fleece from dark reddish brown.