Toward genomic breeding programs in French dairy sheep and goats

Abstract Text: Genomic selection opens new perspectives for breeding programs of dairy ruminants. In France, several projects have enabled the creation of reference populations in dairy sheep and goats. Early studies have shown that the reliability of genomic evaluations using a GBLUP method in these species is lower than in Holstein dairy cattle breed. The single-step approach gives best predictions for candidates at birth (genomic evaluation accuracy obtained by cross validation for milk yield of 0.47 in Lacaune dairy sheep and 0.43 in goats’ breeds). The multi-breed approach is effective in goats by blending Alpine and Saanen breeds, but not in sheep. Finally, switching to genomic selection is planned in Lacaune dairy sheep and is under consideration for other sheep breeds. In goats, inclusion of major genes in genomic evaluations should be explored before switching to genomic breeding programs.

Keywords:

Dairy goats

Dairy sheep

Genomic selection