Genetic parameters for tonic immobility, body weight, and morphological traits of the red-winged tinamou (Rhynchotus rufescens).

This study was carried out to estimate genetic parameters for morphology, body weight, and tonic immobility traits in the red-winged tinamou (Rhynchotus rufescens). Information on 690 birds was used and genetic parameters were estimated using Bayesian methods under a multi-trait animal model. The following traits were considered in this study: tarsal length (TL), bill length (BL), wing length (WL), head width (HW), bill width (BW), mature weight (MW), weight at 90 days (W90), and tonic immobility (TI).

Trait-specific long-term consequences of genomic selection in beef cattle.

Simulation studies allow addressing consequences of selection schemes, helping to identify effective strategies to enable genetic gain and maintain genetic diversity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term impact of genomic selection (GS) in genetic progress and genetic diversity of beef cattle. Forward-in-time simulation generated a population with pattern of linkage disequilibrium close to that previously reported for real beef cattle populations.

Herd-of-origin effect on the post-weaning performance of centrally tested Nellore beef cattle.

The objective of a performance test station is to evaluate the performance of potential breeding bulls earlier in order to decrease the generation interval and increase genetic gain as well. This study evaluates the herd-of-origin influence on end-of-test weight (ETW), average daily weight gain during testing (ADG), average daily weight gain during the adjustment period (ADGadj), rib eye area (REA), marbling (MARB), subcutaneous fat thickness (SFT), conformation (C), early finishing (EF), muscling (M), navel (N) and temperament (T) scores, and scrotal circumference (SC) of Nellore cattle that underwent a performance test. We evaluated 664 animals that participated in the performance tests conducted at the Center for Performance CRV Lagoa between 2007 and 2012.

Use of direct and iterative solvers for estimation of SNP effects in genome-wide selection.

The aim of this study was to compare iterative and direct solvers for estimation of marker effects in genomic selection. One iterative and two direct methods were used: Gauss-Seidel with Residual Update, Cholesky Decomposition and Gentleman-Givens rotations. For resembling different scenarios with respect to number of markers and of genotyped animals, a simulated data set divided into 25 subsets was used.