• Livestock
• Economics

Methodologies to account for crossbred and genomic data in selection for feed efficiency

The general objective of this work was to develop methodologiesto account for crossbred and genomic data for a sustainable selection for feed efficiency. These activities were essentially developed in task 5.4 of the Feed-a-Gene project. Specifically, we have worked on three main topics of research: Assess the contribution of the additive and dominance genetic effects to the phenotype expression of several traits, especially those related to feed efficiency, within crossbred and purebred animals, and the genetic correlation to the corresponding traits between the two populations, Identify optimal genomic prediction models, both in terms of efficiency in calculations and accuracy of estimates, that enable unbiased and accurate estimation of the genetic parameters and genomic breeding values that are required for implementation in practice, Combine all available and newly generated knowledge in terms of genetic variances and economic values to propose a new index to improve feed efficiency.