Multibreed genetic evaluation in bovines using simulated data employing a composite population.

Area of Science:

• Animal Genetics
• Quantitative Genetics
• Breeding Programs

Background:

• Brazilian genetic evaluations are breed-specific, insufficient for diverse genetic groups and crossbreeding.
• Composite breed evaluations are complex due to herd variation and inter-breed non-additive genetic effects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To simulate genetic values and compare different genetic evaluation models for tropical breeds.
• To investigate the impact of maternal and non-additive effects on genetic predictions.

Main Methods:

• Simulation of genetic values across different genetic groups.
• Comparison of statistical models incorporating additive and non-additive genetic effects.
• Analysis of maternal effects on heritability and genetic value estimation.

Main Results:

• Excluding maternal effects leads to overestimation of variance and direct heritability.
• Additive genetic effect estimates are influenced by maternal effects.
• Non-additive genetic effects are minimally influenced by maternal effects and well-estimated.

Conclusions:

• The studied models effectively predict direct genetic values in tropical breeds.
• Accurate genetic evaluations require models that consider both additive and non-additive effects.
• Accounting for maternal effects is crucial for precise heritability estimates.