Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T05:59:29.132Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Estimation of genetic change in farm livestock using field records

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 1962

Charles Smith
Charles Smith
Affiliation:
A.R.C. Animal Breeding Research Organisation, Edinburgh, 9
Get access

Extract

This paper describes the estimation of genetic changes in farm livestock using field data. The method proposed depends on a difference in rate of change in performance of the population and of the successive progenies of individual sires. The change in the population with time is taken as t+g, where t represents environmental change and g represents genetic change, while the within-sire change is taken as t+½g. Their difference measures half the genetic change.

This principle can be applied, with certain precautions, tofielddata where there is some spread of sires over time. The method has two advantages over other methods in that past as well as current changes can be measured and no additional facilities are required. However, selection among sires may bias the estimates of genetic change. Approximate sampling errors of the estimates of change can be obtained and hence the rate of genetic change which a certain body of data will demonstrate to be significant can be estimated.

The method was applied to a set of pig records collected over nine years by a private pig breeder. There was considerable change with time in all six traits examined and in at least three of them there appeared to have been a substantial genetic change accounting for the whole of the observed change.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , June 1962 , pp. 239 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1962

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Dickerson, G. E., 1960. In Techniques and procedures in animal production research. American Society of Animal Production, Beltsville, Maryland.Google Scholar
Elston, R. C., 1959. The estimation of genetic gain in milk yield due to sire selection over a period of time. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.Google Scholar
Goodwin, K., Dickerson, G. E., & Lamoureux, W. F., 1955. A technique for measuring genetic progress in poultry breeding experiments. Poultry Sci., 34: 1197.Google Scholar
Goodwin, K., Dickerson, G. E., & Lamoureux, W. F., 1960. An experimental design for separating genetic and environmental changes in animal populations under selection. Biometrical Genetics. Edited by Kempthorne, O., Pergamon Press, London, 1960.Google Scholar
Gowe, R. S., Robertson, A., & Latter, B. D. H., 1959. Environment and poultry breeding problems. 5. The design of poultry control strains. Poultry Sci., 38: 462.Google Scholar
King, J. W. B., 1957. The heritability of carcass traits in British bacon pigs. Proc. Brit. Soc. Anim. Prod., 1957: 49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leech, F. B., & Healy, M. J. R., 1959. The analysis of experiments on growth rate. Biometrics, 15: 98.Google Scholar
Lörtscher, H., 1937. Variationsstatistische Untersuchungen an Leistungserhebungen in einer British-Friesian Herde. Z. ZüchtBiol., 39: 257.Google Scholar
McDaniel, B. T., Plowman, R. D., & Davis, R. F., 1961. Causes and estimation of environmental changes in a dairy herd. J. Dairy Set., 44: 699.Google Scholar
Nelson, R. H., 1943. Measuring the amount of genetic change in a herd average. J. Anim. Sci., 2: 358. (Abst.)Google Scholar
Rendel, J. M., & Robertson, A., 1950. Estimation of genetic gain in milk yield by selection in a closed herd of dairy cattle. J. Genetics., 50: 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar