The effect of the presence of A on cashmere fibre weight in these goats was large, and it suggests that selection for A would be economically valuable. Goats with the genotype AA could notionally increase cashmere fibre weight by 12.5% compared with those with genotype BB (estimated from Table 5). Thus, for a goat with 400g of combed cashmere fibre weight, the weight improvement might equate to approximately an extra 50 g of cashmere fibre, and without any significant change in fibrediameter. Therefore, KRTAP20-2 may be a useful genetic marker for improved cashmere goat breeding.Further investigation on more goats from different breeds is needed to confirm this finding, as it has been reported that the phenotypic correlations between cashmere fibre traits vary between goats of differing origin [39].