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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #412736
Research Project: Increasing Accuracy of Genomic Prediction, Developing Algorithms, Selecting Markers, and Evaluating New Traits to Improve Dairy Cattle

Location: Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory

Title: Comparison of genomic merit, pedigree completeness, inbreeding, and relationships of genotyped animals across continents

Author
item Vanraden, Paul

Submitted to: Journal of Dairy Science
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/11/2024
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Over a million foreign animals now have US genomic predictions. Recent females born 2018-2023 including 4,259,017 Holsteins and 483,878 Jerseys were grouped by continental region. Those genotypes included 498,480 females from 13 countries in Asia, 378,650 from 17 countries in western Europe, 125,849 from 17 countries in eastern Europe, 153,362 from 12 countries in Latin America, 53,235 from 3 countries in Oceania, and 4,082 from 5 countries in Africa. Individual countries providing the most foreign genotypes were 320,350 from Canada, 186,499 from Saudi Arabia, 160,558 from China, 135,971 from Japan, 114,501 from Italy, and 102,000 from Brazil. For Holsteins, average pedigree completeness ranged from 64.2% for Latin America to 86.1% for western Europe. Average pedigree inbreeding ranged from 8.7% for Africa and Oceania to 9.6% for North America. Oceania also had the lowest expected future inbreeding (EFI) of 9.0% and genomic future inbreeding (GFI) of 9.4% compared to the highest EFI of 9.5% and GFI of 10.4% in North America. Average Net Merit (NM$) was $480 in North America, $335 in Latin America, $381 in Western Europe, $370 in Eastern Europe, $317 in Africa, $366 in Asia, and $211 in Oceania. For the recent genotyped Jerseys, pedigree completeness ranged from 57.3% in Latin America to 87.9% in North America. Western Europe had the lowest averages of 7.6% for pedigree inbreeding, 7.4% for EFI, and 5.7% for GFI compared to highest averages of 8.9% pedigree inbreeding, 9.0% GFI, and 7.7% EFI in North America. Those properties were compared to the first 200,000 foreign genotypes summarized previously in 2015. After 9 years of rapid growth in foreign genotyping since 2015, pedigree completeness decreased slightly on all continents except a small increase in Asia. Inbreeding levels increased quickly, but the foreign genotyped females are still almost as related to US animals as US animals are to each other (EFI and GFI). Average NM$ remains higher in North America than on the other continents.