Genomic Selection

The aim of animal breeding is to change the genetic endowments of the animals and – as a result – improve their traits. However, this is not a matter of the genetic manipulation of the animal itself. So far selection has been carried out on the basis of the phenotypical (recorded) production as an indicator of the congenital production potential. It would be best if the animals’ production predisposition could be extracted directly from their genetic information without going the long way round by using the indirect phenotypical way. Genomic breeding value evaluation and selection is now really close to what was once a dream.

Even though the cattle’s genome has now been decrypted, we know very little about the position and effectiveness of the genes for the majority of the transmission traits. So genomic breeding value evaluation does not work directly on the basis of information about genes, but by using markers.

The development of  these new methods of genetic analysis and the changes in breeding value evaluation have been developed and were supported by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Technology within the subsidiary program FUGATO.

More informationen "Genomic Breeding Values (gBV)".