Genetic and non-genetic factors related to the success of artificial insemination in dairy goats

The objective of this study was to evaluate genetic and non-genetic factors influencing artificial insemination (AI) success in French dairy goats. Data analysis, on a total of 584 676 and 386 517 AI records for Alpine and Saanen breed, respectively, collected from 1992 to 2009, was conducted separately on each breed. We used a linear simple repeatability animal model which combined male and female random effect and environmental fixed effects. The most important environmental factor identified was the period within year effect due to the European heat wave of 2003. The estimated values of the annual fertility exhibited a negative trend of 1% loss of AI success per 10 years for Alpine breed only. The range of variation for the flock×within years random effect was 70% and 65% for Alpine and Saanen breeds. The negative effect on AI success of antibody production after repetitive hormonal treatment was confirmed. We observed an important positive relationship between fertility and protein yield expressed as quartile within flock×years of protein 250-day yield for female with lactation number over 1, while this trend was negative for primiparous females. We detected a negative effect of the duration of conservation of semen with a difference of about 4% of AI success between extreme values (2 to 8+ or 9+ years). Heritability estimates for male fertility were 0.0037 and 0.0043 for Alpine and Saanen breed respectively, while estimates for female fertility was 0.040 and 0.049. Repeatability estimates for males were 0.008 and 0.010 for Alpine and Saanen, respectively, and 0.097 and 0.102 for females. With such low values of heritability, selection can hardly affect fertility