Publications by authors named "Olga Ravagnolo"
Selection for feed efficiency is the goal for many genetic breeding programs in beef cattle. Residual feed intake has been included in genetic evaluations to reduce feed intake without compromising performance traits as liveweight, body gain or carcass traits. However, measuring feed intake is expensive, and only a small percentage of selection candidates are phenotyped.
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- Crossbreeding can enhance reproductive traits in cattle herds through advantages like breed differences, heterosis, and breed complementarity.
- The study analyzed reproductive data from 1,164 females across various genetic groups of Hereford, Angus, Nellore, and Salers under grazing conditions, focusing on traits like artificial insemination probability, calving success, and days to calving.
- Results showed that F1 crossbred females had better artificial insemination rates compared to purebreds, particularly crossbred A/H heifers and N/H cows, with dominance effects boosting the performance of heifers in terms of artificial insemination and calving success.
Article Synopsis
- Model-based accuracy in genetic evaluations is influenced by prediction error variance (PEV) and inbreeding coefficient (F), but ignoring inbreeding can lead to significant errors.
- Ignoring inbreeding in reliability calculations and in the pedigree relationship matrix A results in skewed estimates, especially in rabbits, where inbreeding increases substantially over generations.
- The study emphasizes the necessity of incorporating inbreeding in both settings to improve the accuracy of BLUP and SSGBLUP evaluations for various animal populations.