introduction: genetic resources in any country are valuable materials which needed to be conserved for a sustainable agriculture. an animal phenotype is generally affected by genetic and environmental factors. to increase mean performance in a population under consideration not only environmental conditions, but also genetic potential of the animals should be improved. although, environmental i...

The Dutch Konik is valued from a genetic conservation perspective and also for its role in 12 preservation of natural landscapes. The primary management objective for the captive breeding of 13 this primitive horse is to maintain its genetic purity, whilst also maintaining the nature reserves on 14 which they graze. Breeding selection has traditionally been based on phenotypic characteristics 1...

Efficiency seems to be a global buzzword that is thrown about with multiple, and often unclear, meanings. Generally it is used in the context of improved feed utilization or reproductive performance. However the premise of this paper is to argue that efficiency can also be gained by simply using available genetic resources in a more optimal manor. An example of optimal use is the clear delineat...

the objective of this study was to estimate variance components, genetic and phenotypic trends for somatic cell score. dataset that collected by the animal breeding center of iran was used in this study. data file included 850,729 test day records of somatic cell counts (scc)  on 32,955 cows from lactations one to four, in 472 herds, gathered from years 2002 to 2013 in iran. a test day repeatab...

Conservation Reserve Program Conservation Practice 33 (CP33: Conservation Buffers for Upland Birds) provides habitat for grassland birds in agriculture-dominated landscapes. However, landscape context and adjacency of other land covers may influence colonization, occupancy, and reproductive performance of breeding grassland birds in buffers. Our objective was to determine how edge effects influ...

Evidence for genetic variation to parasites has been found both within, and between, host populations and for a number of important parasite species including nematode worms, coccidian protozoa, flies and ticks. For this genetic variation to be exploited successfully, the requirements of livestock farmers must be identified clearly and an appropriate breeding objective established. The conseque...

The additive relationship matrix plays an important role in mixed model prediction of breeding values. For genotype matrix X (loci in columns), the product XX' is widely used as a realized relationship matrix, but the scaling of this matrix is ambiguous. Our first objective was to derive a proper scaling such that the mean diagonal element equals 1+f, where f is the inbreeding coefficient of th...

Tree breeders face the problem of negative correlations between wood properties and growth traits. It is necessary to overcome this difficulty in order to obtain promising genotypes. The selection index is one of the helpful tools in this process, because it allows multiple features of interest to be selected. In this study, a multiple trait selection index for Khasi pine (Pinus kesiya Royle ex...

Identification of breeding objective traits pertinent to specific production environments with the involvement of target beneficiaries is crucial to the success of a breed improvement program. A choice experiment was conducted in four locations representing different production systems and agro-ecologies that are habitat to four indigenous sheep breeds (Afar, Bonga, Horro and Menz) of Ethiopia ...

A software tool was developed for the stochastic simulation of multiple traits and uses sequential culling for the different traits. It selects superior progeny and, at present, can calculate genetic gain from the backward selection of parent clones based on progeny performance, crossing those parent clones, and forwards selection among the progeny. Key information input to the program includes...