Abstract

This study was conducted for the purpose of estimating the genetic improvement and effects of selection on growth traits of Pacific Abalone, Haliotis discus hannai. For the analysis, 2,733 individuals of 5th generation of selective breeding produced in 2017, their pedigree data and phenotypic data of growth traits at the age of 30-months. Genetic parameter, heritability, and breeding value were estimated by the Best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) method using REMLF90, with sex treated as a fixed effect. At the age 30-months after hatching, the overall means of shell length, shell width, and total weight were 88.3 mm, 57.8 mm and 79.4 g, respectively. and the coefficient of variation of weight was 22.6%, showing the greatest variation among the three growth traits. A high level of significance was recognized as a result of ANOVA of growth traits for sex (P < 0.001). The heritability of shell length, shell width, and total weight were 0.315, 0.339, and 0.304, respectively. The higher the selection intensity, the higher the expected genetic improvement and selection effect. However, in order to minimize inbreeding while maintaining the genetic diversity of the population, selection intensity should be appropriately considered.