Esquema de selección de la raza caprina Majorera: situación de partida, período 2012-2014

The Majorera is the main native goat breed in the Canary Islands for their census and distribution. Since the opening of its herd book in 2012, have been registered 18,478 goats and 396 males, and have been controlled 841 lactations. This study aimed to analyse the degree of breed fidelity in the base population, at describing duration of lactation, milk, fat, protein and dry matter yields through natural lactation and at detecting those non-genetic factors that affect these parameters in the lactations standardized at 150 days (primiparous goats) and 210 days (pluriparous goats). In the Foundational Register, 70 % of the animals evaluated were registered. The main reason of rejection for goats was mestization (44.3 %), followed by conformation faults (37.8 %). For males, the main defect was prognathism (57.1 %), followed by mestization (14.3 %). The 58.53 % of the lactations were from primiparous goats and 53.7 % from pluriparous goats. Milk’s average yields from primiparous goats were 473.40 ± 189,90 kg and 541.84 ± 204,08 kg from pluriparous, both higher than the average production of the other two autochthonous breeds. The effects of parity, litter size and herd-year-season interaction, proved to be sources of significant variation (p<0.05) in applying an analysis of variance in the four productive variables. It is concluded that the Majorera breed has a high potential that can be improved through the selection placing it among the most productive Spanish goat breeds.