Short communication: Improving accuracy of predicting breeding values in Brazilian Holstein population by adding data from Nordic and French Holstein populations

X Li; M S Lund; Q Zhang; C N Costa; V Ducrocq; G Su

doi:10.3168/jds.2015-10609

Short communication: Improving accuracy of predicting breeding values in Brazilian Holstein population by adding data from Nordic and French Holstein populations

J Dairy Sci. 2016 Jun;99(6):4574-4579. doi: 10.3168/jds.2015-10609. Epub 2016 Mar 31.

Authors

X Li¹, M S Lund², Q Zhang³, C N Costa⁴, V Ducrocq⁵, G Su⁶

Affiliations

¹ Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, 8830 Tjele, Denmark; Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture of China, National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China; State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, North Third Road, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510006, China.
² Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, 8830 Tjele, Denmark.
³ Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture of China, National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
⁴ Embrapa Dairy Cattle, Eugênio do Nascimento, 610 Dom Bosco, 36038-330, Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil.
⁵ GABI, INRA, AgroParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay, 78350 Jouy-en-Josas, France.
⁶ Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, 8830 Tjele, Denmark. Electronic address: guosheng.su@mbg.au.dk.

PMID: 27040784
DOI: 10.3168/jds.2015-10609

Abstract

The present study investigated the improvement of prediction reliabilities for 3 production traits in Brazilian Holsteins that had no genotype information by adding information from Nordic and French Holstein bulls that had genotypes. The estimated across-country genetic correlations (ranging from 0.604 to 0.726) indicated that an important genotype by environment interaction exists between Brazilian and Nordic (or Nordic and French) populations. Prediction reliabilities for Brazilian genotyped bulls were greatly increased by including data of Nordic and French bulls, and a 2-trait single-step genomic BLUP performed much better than the corresponding pedigree-based BLUP. However, only a minor improvement in prediction reliabilities was observed in nongenotyped Brazilian cows. The results indicate that although there is a large genotype by environment interaction, inclusion of a foreign reference population can improve accuracy of genetic evaluation for the Brazilian Holstein population. However, a Brazilian reference population is necessary to obtain a more accurate genomic evaluation.

Keywords: BLUP; Holstein population; genotype by environment interaction; single-step genomic BLUP.

MeSH terms

Animals
Brazil
Breeding*
Cattle / genetics*
Female
France
Genotype*
Male
Models, Genetic
Pedigree*
Scandinavian and Nordic Countries