Small area estimation has received considerable attention in recent years due to growing demand for reliable small area statistics• The usual survey estimates, based only on the data from a given small area (domain), are likely to be unreliable due to smallness of sample size in the domain. Therefore, alternative estimators which "borrow strength" from other areas have been proposed in the lite...

The use of a linear estimator to estimate random eeects in a Mixed Model is not necessarily optimal if the prior distribution is non-normal. Either a frequentist or Bayesian approach leads to the Best Linear Unbiased Predictor (BLUP), but an empirical Bayes approach produces a multivariate, non-linear, single-pass kernel-based estimator (the General Empirical Bayes or GEB es-timator) that allow...

OBJECTIVE This study was to determine the relationship between estimated breeding value and phenotype information after farrowing when juvenile selection was made in candidate pigs without phenotype information. METHODS After collecting phenotypic and genomic information for the total number of piglets born by Landrace pigs, selection accuracy between genomic breeding value estimates using ge...

Genetic evaluation by best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) requires modeling genetic means, variances, and covariances. This paper presents theory to model means, variances, and covariances in a multibreed population, given marker and breed information, in the presence of gametic disequilibrium between the marker locus (ML) and linked quantitative trait locus (MQTL). Theory and algorithms are...

Single Step methods combine pedigree relationships and marker genotypes in a single conceptual and streamlined framework based on extending animal model BLUP to include marker genotypes. The extension can be done because genotypes at markers follow covariances described by the pedigree. This results in a relationship matrix that combines pedigree and markers, called H. Fitting H in Henderson’s ...

19 Genomic evaluation methods assume that the reference population is genotyped and 20 phenotyped. This is most often false and the generation of pseudo-phenotypes is uncertain and 21 inaccurate. However, markers obey transmission rules and therefore the covariances of 22 marker genotypes across individuals can be modelled using pedigree relationships. Based on 23 this, an extension of the geno...

A total of 1,367 first lactation records of daughters of 81 sires, having 5 or more progeny were used to evaluate sires by 3 different methods viz., least squares (LS), best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) and derivative free restricted maximum likelihood (DFREML) method. The highest and lowest overall average breeding value of sires for first lactation 305 days or less milk yield was obtaine...

A herd of Norwegian dairy goats was subject to selection for high and low antibody response to diphtheria toxoid for 12 yr, or approximately 5.5 generations because sires were used for one mating season, whereas dams were used several years. The herd comprised approximately 100 milking goats. Only sires were tested and selected, five to seven sires were used in each line each year, and the perc...