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Haplotype Based Genome-Enabled Prediction of Traits Across Nordic Red Cattle Breeds
SNP markers have been widely explored in genome based prediction. This study explored the use of haplotype blocks (haploblocks) to predict five milk production traits (fertility, mastitis, protein, fat and milk yield), using a mix of Nordic Red cattle as reference population for training. Predictions were performed under a Bayesian approach comparing a GBLUP and a mixture model. In general, predictions were more reliable when using haploblocks instead of individual SNPs as predictors. The Danish Red cattle presented the largest benefit in predictive ability from haploblocks, achieving 5.1% higher reliability than with the individual SNP approach in mastitis. This work gives evidence that predictions using haploblocks along with a combined training population of dairy cattle, may improve prediction accuracy of important traits in the individual populations.
Keywords:
Genome-enabled prediction
Haploblocks
Across breed
