Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2021, Vol. 52 ›› Issue (6): 1563-1570.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2021.06.011

• ANIMAL GENETICS AND BREEDING • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The Genetic Connectedness Analysis among Different Chinese Simmental Beef Cattle Farms

ZHOU Peinuo1, CAI Wentao1, CHEN Yan1, ZHANG Lupei1, XU Lingyang1, GAO Xue1, GAO Huijiang1,2, WANG Zezhao1, ZHU Bo1,2*, LI Junya1,2*   

  1. 1. Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China;
    2. National Center of Beef Cattle Genetic Evaluation, Beijing 100193, China
  • Received:2020-10-12 Online:2021-06-23 Published:2021-06-22

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to accelerate the genetic progress of Chinese Simmental beef cattle and realize nationwide joint breeding. The birth weight traits of 3 991 Chinese Simmental beef cattle born from 2000 to 2019 at 38 beef breeding farms and bull stations in China was used to calculate the connectedness rate between farms by DMU software. And the predicted accuracy of estimated breeding value(EBV) and heritability was compared between single-farm and connectedness group. This study found that the national average connectedness rate of Chinese Simmental beef cattle was 1.91%, there was a low connectedness rate between the most farms. According to the connectedness rate, two connectedness groups were divided, which included 6 and 8 farms, respectively. The average connectedness rates within the two groups were 11.23% and 12.54%, respectively. The range of heritability for birth weight in single-farm evaluation was 0.32-0.44. The heritability of joint evaluation group-1 and group-2 were 0.47 and 0.43, respectively. The average accuracy of estimated breeding value in the single-farm evaluation of group 1 and group 2 was 0.47 and 0.45, respectively. The average accuracy of estimated breeding value in the joint evaluation of group 1 and group 2 was 0.61 and 0.56, respectively. The accuracy of estimated breeding value in joint evaluation was obviously higher than that in single-farm evaluation. Dividing the joint evaluation groups according to the connectedness rate for joint breeding is beneficial to speed up the breeding process of Chinese Simmental beef cattle. In order to promote the breeding process of Chinese Simmental beef cattle, regional joint breeding should be formed first, and then genetic association should be gradually strengthened to form a nationwide genetic association system.

Key words: Chinese Simmental beef cattle, connectedness rate, birth weight, joint breeding

CLC Number: