H.A. Mulder : "Optimal breeding of livestock for different environments and with a smaller environmental sensitivity"

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27 Apr 2007 13:30
Unit: Wageningen University
Location: Aula, building 362, Gen. Foulkesweg 1, Wageningen
Organisation: Wageningen University
Promotor: prof.dr.ir. J.A.M. van Arendonk (Animal Breeding and Genetics)
Co Promotor: Dr.ir. P. Bijma, Prof. W.G. Hill (University of Edinburgh, UK)

 Genotype by environment interaction causes that the best animal in one environment may not be the best animal in another environment. As a consequence, genetic gain in livestock breeding program can be decreased. Results show that genetic gain can be increased by recording sib and progeny information in the commercial environment. When breeding for different commercial environments, the use of a single overall breeding program is superior to the use of separate breeding programs for each environment, for genetic correlations greater than 0.7 – 0.8.
Genotype by environment interaction may also exist within environments due to genetic differences in response to environmental fluctuations. These genetic differences in environmental sensitivity may appear as genetic differences in environmental variance and can be exploited to increase uniformity or robustness. A selection index is presented that accurately predicts response to selection in both means and variances of traits. Results show that, even with a low heritability of the environmental variance, prospects for changing the variance of traits by means of selection are quite good.

Title thesis: "Methods to Optimize Livestock Breeding Programs with Genotype by Environment Interaction and Genetic Heterogeneity of Environmental Variance"
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