Across breed genomic predictions in beef cattle

Abstract Text: The objective of this study was to derive and evaluate the accuracies of direct genomic breeding values (DGV) for several beef cattle breeds using within- and across-breed genomic predictions. BovineSNP50 BeadChip (50K) genotypes scored in 18,274 animals from 10 US beef cattle breeds with observations for ten body weights, calving ease and carcass traits were used. Within-breed genomic predictions had no utility for most traits when applied to other breeds (accuracies close to zero). However, across-breed genomic predictions had some utility for some  traits due to the segregation of common large-effect QTL with conserved linkage phase among different breeds. The accuracies of DGV improved slightly for some breeds when predictions were derived using multi-breed reference populations. Currently, genomic predictions in beef cattle provide useful predictions only within breed.  In the longer term, denser marker panels, and more research, may lead to predictions with across-breed utility.

Keywords: breeding values