Effects of foster dams can be included in genetic evaluations using animal models with maternal effects in several ways. The alternatives discussed involve minor changes in computing strategies from strategies used with reduced animal models that predict breeding values for direct and maternal effects. The easiest alternative is to assign foster dams to groups by breed and time period and add e...

Effects of foster dams can be included in genetic evaluations using animal models with maternal effects in several ways. The alternatives discussed involve minor changes in computing strategies from strategies used with reduced animal models that predict breeding values for direct and maternal effects. The easiest alternative is to assign foster dams to groups by breed and time period and add e...

The avianuncoupling protein (avUCP) is a member of the mitochondrial transporter superfamily that uncouples proton entry in the mitochondrial matrix from ATP synthesis. The polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method was used to estimate the allele and genotype frequencies of the UCP/HhaI polymorphisms and to determine associations between these polymorp...

Manchego sheep is the native breed in Castilla-La Mancha (a region of Spain). Its two main products are Manchego cheese and Manchego lamb, representing more than 50% of the final animal production in the region. Because of these economical implication and with the aim of improving Manchego sheep production, a selection scheme (called ESROM) based on the animal genetic merit was started fifteen ...

Tomkins et al. (Reports, 14 May 2010, p. 892) reported a strong negative correlation between breeding values and mutational load in cow-pea weevils. Here, I show that this result can be attributed to a statistical artifact. By testing the observed correlation against an incorrect null hypothesis, they find a negative correlation where one does not exist.

In livestock populations, missing genotypes on a large proportion of the animals is a major problem when implementing gene-assisted breeding value estimation for genes with known effect. The objective of this study was to compare different methods to deal with missing genotypes on accuracy of gene-assisted breeding value estimation for identified bi-allelic genes using Monte Carlo simulation. A...

In approximately 3.2% of bird species individuals regularly forgo the opportunity to breed independently and instead breed cooperatively with other conspeci¢cs, either as non-reproductive `helpers' or as co-breeders. The traditional explanation for cooperative breeding is that the opportunities for breeding independently are limited owing to peculiar features of the species' breeding ecology. H...

correlation between breeding value of crude milk (cm) and energy-corrected milk (ecm) was studied based on a total of 774,013 test day records belongs to 88,456 first-parity holsteins dairy cattle calving during 1997-2009 in 165 herds (from six provinces). genetic analysis of the traits was carried out by a fixed regression test day model. in the model, effects of herd, calving year, production...