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Sustainable Food Production pp 58–78Cite as

Animal Breeding, Foundations of

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Definition of the Subject

The term Animal Breeding refers to the human-guided genetic improvement of phenotypic traits in domestic animals such as livestock and companion species [1]. Animal breeding is based on principles of Quantitative Genetics [2–4] and aims to increase the frequency of favorable alleles and allelic combinations in the population, which is achieved through selection of superior individuals and specific mating systems strategies. Selection methods and mating strategies are developed by combining principles of quantitative and population genetics with sophisticated statistical methods and computational algorithms for integrating phenotypic, pedigree, and genomic information, along with the utilization of reproductive technologies that allow for larger progeny cohorts from superior animals as well as shorter generation intervals.

Through selection and mating...

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Abbreviations

Bayesian inference:

Statistical inference approach based on the combination of prior information and evidence (i.e., observations) for estimation or hypothesis testing. In Bayesian analysis the prior information is updated with the experimental data to generate the posterior distribution of unknowns, such as model parameters. The name “Bayesian” comes from the use of the Bayes’ theorem in the updating process.

Breeding value:

A measure of the genetic merit of an individual for breeding purposes.

Genetic correlation:

The correlation between traits that is caused by genetic as opposed to environmental factors. Genetic correlations can be caused by pleiotropy (genes that affect multiple traits simultaneously) or by linkage disequilibrium between genes affecting the different traits.

Genomic selection:

Genomic selection is a form of marker-assisted selection in which genetic markers covering the whole genome are used such that all quantitative trait loci (QTL) are in linkage disequilibrium with at least one marker.

Heritability (narrow sense):

The fraction of the phenotypic variance that is due to additive genetic effects.

Infinitesimal genetic model:

A genetic model that assumes that a trait is influenced by a very large (effectively infinite) number of loci, each with infinitesimal effect.

Linkage disequilibrium:

Nonrandom association of alleles at two or more loci, leading to combinations of alleles (haplotypes) that are more or less frequent in a population than would be expected from a random formation of haplotypes from alleles based on their frequencies.

Mixed models:

A mixed-effects model (or simply mixed model) is a statistical model containing both fixed and random effects. Such models are useful in a wide variety of disciplines in the physical, biological, and social sciences, especially for the analysis of data with repeated measurements on each statistical unit or with measurements taken on clusters of related statistical units.

Population genetics:

The study of allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four main evolutionary processes: selection, genetic drift, mutation, and migration.

Quantitative genetics:

The study of complex traits (e.g., production and reproductive traits, disease resistance) and their underlying genetic mechanisms. It is effectively an extension of simple Mendelian inheritance in that the combined effect of the many underlying genes results in a continuous distribution of phenotypic values or of some underlying scale or liability thereof.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Animal Sciences, Biostatistics & Medical Informatics, Dairy Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Dr. Guilherme J. M. Rosa

Authors
  1. Dr. Guilherme J. M. Rosa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guilherme J. M. Rosa .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department de Produccio Vegetal i Ciencia Forestal, Universitat de Lleida/ICREA, Lleida, Spain

    Paul Christou

  2. Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain

    Paul Christou

  3. Department of Crop and Forest Sciences, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain

    Roxana Savin

  4. University of New England, Marine Science Center, Biddeford, ME, USA

    Barry A. Costa-Pierce

  5. Department of Animal and Dairy Science Breeding and Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Ignacy Misztal

  6. The Roslin Institute and Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, Division of Developmental Biology, University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, UK

    C. Bruce A. Whitelaw

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Rosa, G.J.M. (2013). Animal Breeding, Foundations of. In: Christou, P., Savin, R., Costa-Pierce, B.A., Misztal, I., Whitelaw, C.B.A. (eds) Sustainable Food Production. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5797-8_334

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