Estimates of variance components and genetic parameters for milk, fat, protein yields, and mozzarella cheese yields and percentages of fat and protein are shown in Table 2. All estimates of genetic parameters seem to be low, especially compared to estimates from similar analyses for dairy cattle.Buffaloes have not been intensively
selected in the past, so greater genetic variability among animals would be expected. Some possible causes of low estimates of genetic parameters can be addressed. There is traditionally considerable variability in management both among and inside herds. The model can only partially account for management variability. The variation in production can be assigned mainly to environmental effects causing low heritability estimates. Though editing on data was done before the analysis to exclude cows without known sire and dam, some wrong genealogy may be present. Misleading paternity identification with the animal model would result in assigning part of the genetic variability to environmental effects and would reduce the estimate of heritability for direct genetic effects.The Italian buffalo population has also experienced changes over time. The large population in the Italian peninsula until the end of the last century contracted to a small number to reach a minimum |40 years ago. Since then popula tion size has increased. The current population might
have originated from a very small group of animals causing low genetic variability. The low estimate of heritability for mozzarella production, as for all other traits, indicates that progress due to selection might be slow if traditional selection schemes are used to improve quantity and quality of milk to produce mozzarella cheese. Better identification will improve the genetic trend of the population. Alternative selection schemes that make use of techniques to overcome the problem of misleading genealogies may need to be further developed.