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Research Article

Assessment of reproduction and productivity indices of mares of Polish Konik horses breed in the Roztocze National Park stud farm during 1996–2015

Michał Pluta, Magdalena Pyrz

¹Department of Horse Breeding and Use, University of Life Sciences in Lublin Akademicka 13, 20-950 Lublin, Poland 2Department of Animal and Enivironmental Higiene, University of Life Sciences in Lublin Akademicka 13, 20-950 Lublin, Poland

1. Acta Sci. Pol. Zootechnica, 15(3), 2016, 97‒110
2. DOI: 10.21005/asp.2016.15.3.08

Abstract. The work presents and evaluates the reproduction indices of the mares from the stud farm of Polish Konik horses bred during the years 1996–2015 in the Roztocze National Park (RNP). The studies included 46 dams and analyses of 157 breeding seasons. During the analyzed period, 124 successful coverings of mares resulted in 114 live foals. The following differentiated reproduction utilization parameters were determined: foaling rate – 78.98%, fertility rate – 72.61%, fecundity rate – 63.06%, infertility rate – 21.0%, miscarriage rate – 4.03%, rearing efficiency – 86.84% and reproductive utilization index – 79.84%. In the population under study, only 20% of mares maintain reproductive activity for 6 years and more, therefore the overall mean 3.41 for the herd breeding season is not satisfying. At present, the RNP stud farm houses the mares representing four dam families, i.e. Urszulka, Tarpanka, Traszka and Zaza. The average gestation length of all the mares in the study group was 327.53 days ranging from 306 (Tora) up to 355 days (Temida). Pregnancy duration averaged 328.8 days for colt foals and 326 days for filly foals. The results of the reproduction and productivity indices obtained in the analyzed herd were considerably affected by individual traits of a mare. A foaling season in the studied mare group is characteristic for the representatives of this species and commonly occurs between February and April (84 animals – 67.74%). The analysis of the reproduction and productivity measures of the stud farm mares in Zwierzyniec has indicated the need of drawing attention to some breeding efforts towards improvement of the breeding indices.

Keywords: Polish Konik horses, mare, reproduction indices, stud farm