Comparison of male selection strategies in Finnish blue fox population using stochastic simulation

• The selection in current Finnish blue fox breeding scheme is based on traditional BLUP evaluation. Among fur farmers, there is increasing discussion if genomic selection should be taken into use also in blue fox breeding. Breeding value evaluation is done across farms but selection is done mainly within farms. Currently, selection of blue fox breeding animals is in some extend inefficient and uncontrolled. Because selection of breeding males have most pronounced effect to the population, this study compared three optional future blue fox breeding male selection strategies using genomic information: (1) male selection within farm using truncation selection; (2) Male selection across farms using truncation selection; and (3) Male selection across farms using optimal contribution selection. In all three scenarios two optional female/male ratio (10/1 and 25/1) and two optional proportions of genotyped male pups (10 and 50%) was compared. The breeding goal in all scenarios included litter size, pelt size, pelt quality, feed efficiency and leg conformation. Study based on stochastic simulation. Genomic selection is simulated using pseudo-genomic simulation and three optional levels of accuracies of genomic breeding values were tested (low, medium and high). Across farms selection resulted higher total economic gain than within farm selection. Moreover, scenarios with higher females/male ratio and higher proportion of genotyped male pups resulted higher genetic gain than low female/male ratio and low proportion of genotyped male pups.

Ämnesord

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Bioteknologi med applikationer på växter och djur -- Genetik och förädling inom lantbruksvetenskap (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Agricultural Biotechnology -- Genetics and Breeding in Agricultural Sciences (hsv//eng)

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