Abstract:Testing records of growth traits in 240-day age Japanese flounder selective breeding families between 2006 and 2009 at the Beidaihe Central Experiment Station, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, were used to analyze the genetic parameters of growth traits by 4 different animal models. The four models examined additive genetic effect, maternal genetic effect and full sib effect. The variance components in different models were estimated with the derivative free restricted maximum likelihood (DFREML) method using MTDFREML software. The differences between different models were tested by likelihood ratio test. The results showed that the maternal genetic effect and full sib effect were significant for body weight (BW), body length (BL) and body depth (BD), and the model Ⅳ should be adopted for analysis. The heritability of BW, BL and BD was 0.30, 0.32 and 0.39, respectively. Positive genetic correlations were found between BW and BL, BW and BD, at values of 0.93 and 0.95 respectively. The positive genetic correlations between BL and BD were 0.90.
