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Analysis of rabbit doe longevity using a semiparametric log-Normal animal frailty model with time-dependent covariates
Genetics Selection Evolution volume 38, Article number: 281 (2006)
Abstract
Data on doe longevity in a rabbit population were analysed using a semiparametric log-Normal animal frailty model. Longevity was defined as the time from the first positive pregnancy test to death or culling due to pathological problems. Does culled for other reasons had right censored records of longevity. The model included time dependent covariates associated with year by season, the interaction between physiological state and the number of young born alive, and between order of positive pregnancy test and physiological state. The model also included an additive genetic effect and a residual in log frailty. Properties of marginal posterior distributions of specific parameters were inferred from a full Bayesian analysis using Gibbs sampling. All of the fully conditional posterior distributions defining a Gibbs sampler were easy to sample from, either directly or using adaptive rejection sampling. The marginal posterior mean estimates of the additive genetic variance and of the residual variance in log frailty were 0.247 and 0.690.
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Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Sánchez, J.P., Korsgaard, I.R., Damgaard, L.H. et al. Analysis of rabbit doe longevity using a semiparametric log-Normal animal frailty model with time-dependent covariates. Genet Sel Evol 38, 281 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1186/1297-9686-38-3-281
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1297-9686-38-3-281