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Genetic and non-genetic indirect effects for bite mark traits in group housed mink

Thursday, August 21, 2014
Posters (The Westin Bayshore)
Setegn worku Alemu , Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Tjele, Denmark
Peer Berg , Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Tjele, Denmark
Luc Janss , Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Tjele, Denmark
Steen Henrik Moller , Department of Animal Science Epidemiology and management, Aarhus University, Tjele, Denmark
Piter Bijma , Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands
Abstract Text:

 Social interactions among individuals are abundant, both in wild and domestic populations. With social interactions, genes of an individual may affect the trait values of other individuals, a phenomenon known as Indirect Genetic Effects (IGEs). IGEs can be estimated using linear mixed models. Here we show that IGE contribute substantial heritable variation in bite mark scores in group housed mink. Furthermore we investigated whether IGEs depend on relatedness between interacting individuals or on their sex. Current IGE-models assume that individuals interact equally to all group members irrespective of relatedness. Kin selection theory predicts that an individual will interact differently with family members vs. non-family members. We showed that mink interact differently either due to sex or the family relationship with their group mates. Our results show that IGEs are very important for welfare in mink, and there are good prospects for genetic improvement.

Keywords:

mink

Bite mark

IGEs

See more of: Posters: Genetics of Trait Complexes - Disease Resistance (Group 2)
See more of: Genetics of Trait Complexes: Disease resistance
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