title: Analysis of rabbit doe longevity using a semiparametric log-Normal animal frailty model with time-dependent covariates.
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.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciencia Animal, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera 14, 46022 Valencia, Spain. juansan@dca.upv.es
authors.forename: Juan Pablo
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.forename: Inge Riis
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Korsgaard
authors.forename: Lars Holm
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Damgaard
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Baselga
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D016014:Linear Models; D008136:Longevity / Q000502:physiology*; D015233:Models, Statistical; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D018873:Pregnancy Rate; D011817:Rabbits; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012621:Seasons; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013997:Time Factors