Single-step genomic prediction for live animal ultrasound measures of carcass traits in Czech Aberdeen Angus
Year | 2024 |
Cathegory | Others |
Internal link | 24108.pdf |
Abstract | Although meat quality is still not reflected in the price of meat at commercial abattoirs in the Czech Republic, many Aberdeen Angus breeders prefer animals with better meat quality. These are mainly producers who implement a system of selling meat from farms or running their restaurants. In this case, customers are more likely to demand high-quality meat. For this reason, in 2019, regular annual live animal ultrasound measurements of meat quality-related traits were launched. Four measurements are collected – rump fat thickness (P8FT), rib fat thickness (RBFT), eye muscle area (EMA), and intramuscular fat content (IMF). In addition, the weight at scanning (SCW) is recorded. This study aimed to develop a genomic evaluation for live animal ultrasound measures and investigate the impact of using genomic information on genetic evaluation. Ultrasound measures were collected from 2,500 live animals, the relationship matrix included 7,251 animals, and 2,278 animals were genotyped using GeneSeek GGP Bovine 150K, BovineSNP50 v3 BeadChip, and EuroG MD beadchips. Common SNPs located on all chips were used for genomic evaluation. The number of effective SNPs was 32,126. BLUPF90+ software was used for analysis. Firstly, the genetic parameters were estimated using AIREML. The obtained heritabilities were 0.37+-0.05 (SCW), 0.38+-0.05 (P8FT), 0.34+-0.04 (RBFT), 0.27+-0.05 (EMA), and 0.12+-0.04 (IMF). The genomic breeding values (GEBVs) were predicted using the ssGBLUP method. Correlations between BVs (predicted earlier) and GEBVs were 0.9-0.98 for non-genotyped animals, 0.9-0.95 for genotyped animals with records, and 0.82-0.85 for genotyped pedigree animals. No significant changes in reliabilities for non-genotyped animals were found. However, GEBV’s reliabilities for genotyped animals were distinctly higher than BV’s. For genotyped animals with records, the reliabilities on average increased by 0.29, 0.21, 0.2, 0.24, and 0.16. The increase was even higher for genotyped pedigree animals by 0.44, 0.4, 0.39, 0.36, and 0.27 for SCW, P8FT, RBFT, EMA, and IMF, respectively. These results confirm the benefits of single-step genomic evaluation. |
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