The predictive ability of indirect genetic models is reduced when culled animals are omitted from the data

Physical removal of individuals from groups causes reductions in group sizes and changes in group composition, which may affect the predictive ability of estimates of indirect genetic effects of animals on phenotypes of group mates. We hypothesized that including indirect genetic effects of culled animals and of animals without phenotypes in the analysis affects estimates of genetic parameters, improves predictive ability, and reduces bias of predicted breeding values. We tested this by applying different editing procedures, i.e. omission of individuals or groups from the data, and genetic models, i.e. a classical and an indirect genetic model (IGM) without or with weighting of indirect genetic effects based on the relative proportion of time spent in the pen or space allowance. Data consisted of average daily gain for 123,567 pigs in 11,111 groups, from which 3% of individuals in 25% of groups were prematurely removed from the group.

The estimate of total heritability was higher (0.29 to 0.34) than that of direct heritability (0.23 to 0.25) regardless of the editing procedures and IGM used. Omission of individuals or groups from the data reduced the predictive ability of estimates of indirect genetic effects by 8 to 46%, and the predictive ability of estimates of the combined direct and indirect genetic effects by up to 4%. Omission of full groups introduced bias in predicted breeding values. Weighting of indirect genetic effects reduced the predictive ability of their estimates by at least 19% and of the estimates of the combined direct and indirect genetic effects by 1%.

We identified significant indirect genetic effects for growth in pigs. Culled animals should neither be removed from the data nor accounted for by weighting their indirect genetic effects in the model based on the relative proportion of time spent in the pen or space allowance, because it will reduce predictive ability and increase bias of predicted breeding values. Information on culled animals is important for prediction of indirect genetic effects and must be accounted for in IGM analyses by including fixed regressions based on relative time spent within the pen or relative space allowance.