Optimizing selection with several constraints in poultry breeding.

Abstract

Poultry breeding schemes permanently face the need to control the evolution of coancestry and some critical traits, while selecting for a main breeding objective. The main aims of this article are first to present an efficient selection algorithm adapted to this situation and then to measure how the severity of constraints impacted on the degree of loss for the main trait, compared to BLUP selection on the main trait, without any constraint. Broiler dam and sire line schemes were mimicked by simulation over 10 generations and selection was carried out on the main trait under constraints for coancestry and for another trait, antagonistic with the main trait. The selection algorithm was a special simulated annealing (adaptative simulated annealing (ASA)). It was found to be rapid and able to meet constraints very accurately. A constraint on the second trait was found to induce an impact similar to or even greater than the impact of the constraint on coancestry. The family structure of selected poultry populations made it easy to control the evolution of coancestry at a reasonable cost but was not as useful for reducing the cost of controlling evolution of the antagonistic traits. Multiple constraints impacted almost additively on the genetic gain for the main trait. Adding constraints for several traits would therefore be justified in real life breeding schemes, possibly after evaluating their impact through simulated annealing.