Abstract
Population management has the primary task of maximizing the long-term competitiveness of a breed. Breeds compete with each other for being able to supply consumer demands at low costs and also for funds from conservation programs. The competition for consumer preference is won by breeds with high genetic gain for total merit who maintained a sufficiently high genetic diversity, whereas the competition for funds is won by breeds with high conservation value. The conservation value of a breed could be improved by increasing its contribution to the gene pool of the species. This may include the recovery of its original genetic background and the maintenance of a high genetic diversity at native haplotype segments. The primary objective of a breeding program depends on the genetic state of the population and its intended usage. In this paper, we review the key genetic parameters that are relevant for population management, compare the methods for estimating them, derive the formulas for predicting their value at a future time, and clarify their usage in various types of breeding programs that differ in their main objectives. These key parameters are kinships, native kinships, breeding values, Mendelian sampling variances, native contributions, and mutational effects. Population management currently experiences a transition from using pedigree-based estimates to marker-based estimates, which improves the accuracies of these estimates and thereby increases response to selection. In addition, improved measures of the factors that determine the competitiveness of a breed and utilize auxiliary parameters, such as Mendelian sampling variances, mutational effects, and native kinships, enable to improve further upon historic recommendations for genetic population management.
Highlights
Domestic animal breeds compete with each other
Unlike best linear unbiased predictions (BLUP) breeding values, genomic breeding values account for the Mendelian sampling term component of the breeding values of young animals, which enables selection within young full-sib families
The estimate BVt+g can be obtained by extrapolating the historic development of the average breeding values of breeding males or females in the future, whereby the time g that passes until the offspring could be used for breeding depends on his sex and equals approximately the generation interval
Summary
Domestic animal breeds compete with each other. Breeds with highest competitiveness increase in size and thereby displace less competitive breeds. The relevant genetic parameters are the average breeding value for total merit, the genetic diversity of the population, and the genome equivalent that is contributed by the breed to the genetic diversity of the species. These parameters can be target parameters of breeding programs, their improvement can be facilitated with the help of some further auxiliary parameters. The target parameter is the average true breeding value for total merit, knowledge of individual Mendelian sampling variances and of mutational effects can help to increase selection response. A breeding program with focus on genetic gain in total merit aims to achieve a high average breeding value in the population at a future time t + 1. Genomically enhanced breeding values could be obtained directly with a Bayesian single-step method (Lee et al, 2017)
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