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Lecture 4: Selection for phenotypic character-

Predicting Breeding Value
PREDICTING BREEDING VALUE

Management of candidates for selection

Adjusting records of performance

Predicting the values of individual animals

MANAGEMENT OF CANDIDATES FOR
SELECTION TO DISENTANGLE THE EFFECT
OF GENE AND ENVIRONMENT
Difficult to identify with certainty the animals that
have been affected by subclinical disease
Discard the performance records from animals that
clearly have been affected
Important to give animals equal opportunity (born
over a relatively short period of time, on the same
farm, and fed and managed similarly)to express their
genetic merit
These animals called contemporaries and groups they
belong was called contemporary group
Will improve the accuracy of selection
 ADJUSTING RECORDS OF PERFORMANCE

Additive correction factors

Involve adding amount to (or subtracting amount from)

the performance records of animals which belong to
particular classes such as singles or twins

On average the singles were 3 kg heavier than twins for

lambs weight at weaning

Add 3 kg to the weaning weight of all twin lamb (or

subtract 3 kg the weight of all single lambs) to create a
set of adjusted records.

Then all the lambs could be compared as a single group

and those with the heaviest adjusted weights selected
for breeding
ADVANTAGE OF ADDITIVE CORRECTION
FACTORS

Easy to use
Make no assumption about the average genetic
merit of animals in different contemporary
groups
DISDVANTAGE OF ADDITIVE CORRECTION
FACTORS
Many record of performance are needed to estimate
correction factors accurately
Have to be estimated from data prior to the selection
of animals
May be fairly specific to a particular herd, flock or
management system
Can over-correct records of performance and remove
some genetic differences. Eg. If CF were estimated for
a flock in which two rams had been used and by
chance the genetically largest ram had more single
born offspring. The effect of being born as a single
lamb could be over estimated due to part of the
advantage to singles was in fact due to having a
genetically heavier ram.
MULTIPLICATIVE CORRECTION FACTORS
The records of performance are adjusted by
multiplying by the CF
Eg. Let say that triplet 4% lighter than twins,
and so multiply all weight from triplets by 1.04 to
bring them to the level expected for twin.
STANDARDIZING TO ADJUST RECORD
A method of adjusting records involve assigning records
born in a specified time period to a contemporary group,
based on the factors to be adjusted for.
Within each of these groups each record is then expressed
as a deviation from the mean of the group, in standard
deviation units.
Eg. Records from lambs born over a period of a few weeks
(a season) could be assigned to 4 groups: single reared from
2 yr old dams: single reared from older dams: multiple
reared from 2 yr old dams: single reared from older dams:
The mean and sd of the trait concerned are then calculated
separately for each of 4 groups. Finally the performance
record of each animal is expressed as a deviation from the
mean of its own group and then divided by the sd for
that group. This gives records expressed in sd units
(typically ranging from about -3 to about +3.
PREDICTING BREEDING VALUE
PBV or EBV
The clues we can use to predict BVs are records
of performance from:
 the animal itself
 the animal·s ancestor
 The animal·s full or half sibs
 The animal·s progeny
 Any other relatives of the animals
 Combination of the classes of relatives listed
above
USING THE ANIMAL·S OWN PERFORMANCE
The simplest case
The deviation in performance from
contemporaries, multiplied by the heritability of
the trait concerned
h2 x (xi ² xp )

The animals rank in exactly the same order

within a herd as they rank on their performance
record or on their deviation from the mean of
contemporaries. However the PBV predicts how
much of the superiority or inferiority in the
animal·s performance is due to its genes.
FEATURES OF PBV
Can have +ve or ²ve value, or zero
The sign indicates whether they are expected to
be genetically above or below mean of the group
They span a narrower range than the deviation s
in performance - this regression or shrinking
reflects the fact the part of variation in
performance is environmental. For an animal
with a single record of performance the
regression coefficient is simply the heritability of
the trait concerned.
 They are expressed in the same units as the
record of performance
USING INFORMATION FROM RELATIVES
The simplest case is when records available from
the parents.
PBV offspring = ½ PBV sire + ½ PBV dam
TERIMA KASIH