Toward genomic selection in dairy goats

Abstract

Genomic selection, which is revolutionizing genetic selection in dairy cattle is now considered in the breeding of other animals. In French dairy goats, gain in accuracy using genomic selection has been questionned due to the small size of the reference population (825 males and 1 945 females genotyped). The aim of this study was to investigate how to reach adequate genomic evaluation accuracy in the French dairy goat population. The study of a reference population structure (Alpine and Saanen breeds) showed that the level of linkage disequilibrium (0.17 between two consecutive SNP), inbreeding and the relationship between the reference and candidate population were not ideal to maximize genomic evaluation accuracy. Two steps genomic evaluation (GBLUP, Bayesian) based on performances corrected for fixed effects did not improve genetic evaluation accuracy compared to classical evaluations for milk production traits, udder type traits and somatic cells scores. When using genomic evaluation directly based on female performances (single step), accuracy of genomic evaluation is higher than the accuracy level obtained from the ascendance. Genomic selection is feasible in French dairy goats. Accuracies could be slightly improved integrating a major gene such as αs1 casein