RESEARCH ARTICLE Repeatability, reproducibility and consistency of horse shape data and its association with linearly described conformation traits in Franches-Montagnes stallions Annik Imogen Gmel1,2*, Thomas Druml3, Katrin Portele1,4¤, Rudolf von NiederhaÈusern1, Markus Neuditschko1,3 a1111111111 1 Agroscope±Swiss National Stud Farm, Avenches, Switzerland, 2 Institute of Genetics, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland, 3 Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Veterinary University a1111111111 Vienna, Vienna, Austria, 4 Equine Sciences Faculty, Veterinary University Vienna, Vienna, Austria a1111111111 a1111111111 ¤ Current address: Messerli±Research Institute, Veterinary University Vienna, Vienna, Austria a1111111111 *
[email protected] Abstract OPEN ACCESS Linear description (LD) of conformation traits was introduced in horse breeding to minimise Citation: Gmel AI, Druml T, Portele K, von subjectivity in scoring. However, recent studies have shown that LD traits show essentially NiederhaÈusern R, Neuditschko M (2018) the same problems as traditionally scored traits, such as data converging around the mean Repeatability, reproducibility and consistency of horse shape data and its association with linearly value with very small standard deviations. To improve the assessment of conformation traits described conformation traits in Franches- of horses, we investigated the application of the recently described horse shape space Montagnes stallions. PLoS ONE 13(8): e0202931. model based upon 403 digitised photographs of 243 Franches-Montagnes (FM) stallions https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202931 and extracted joint angles based on specific landmark triplets. Repeatability, reproducibility Editor: Juan J Loor, University of Illinois, UNITED and consistency of the resulting shape data and joint angles were assessed with Procrustes STATES ANOVA (Rep) and intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC).