Prediction of breeding values for group-recorded traits including genomic information and an individually recorded correlated trait |
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| Authors: | Xiang Ma Ole F Christensen Hongding Gao Ruihua Huang Bjarne Nielsen Per Madsen Just Jensen Tage Ostersen Pinghua Li Mahmoud Shirali Guosheng Su |
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| Institution: | 1.Institute of Swine Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095 China ;2.College of Animal Science and Technology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forest Universiry, Hangzhou, 311300 China ;3.Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, 8830 Tjele, Denmark ;4.SEGES, Pig Research Centre, 1609 Copenhagen, Denmark |
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| Abstract: | Records on groups of individuals could be valuable for predicting breeding values when a trait is difficult or costly to measure on single individuals, such as feed intake and egg production. Adding genomic information has shown improvement in the accuracy of genetic evaluation of quantitative traits with individual records. Here, we investigated the value of genomic information for traits with group records. Besides, we investigated the improvement in accuracy of genetic evaluation for group-recorded traits when including information on a correlated trait with individual records. The study was based on a simulated pig population, including three scenarios of group structure and size. The results showed that both the genomic information and a correlated trait increased the accuracy of estimated breeding values (EBVs) for traits with group records. The accuracies of EBV obtained from group records with a size 24 were much lower than those with a size 12. Random assignment of animals to pens led to lower accuracy due to the weaker relationship between individuals within each group. It suggests that group records are valuable for genetic evaluation of a trait that is difficult to record on individuals, and the accuracy of genetic evaluation can be considerably increased using genomic information. Moreover, the genetic evaluation for a trait with group records can be greatly improved using a bivariate model, including correlated traits that are recorded individually. For efficient use of group records in genetic evaluation, relatively small group size and close relationships between individuals within one group are recommended.Subject terms: Genetic markers, Animal breeding |
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