Flexible, Low Density SNP Information in Animal Breeding

Genomic selection has had a major impact on animal breeding programs, providing more accurate estimates for breeding value earlier in the life of breeding animals, giving more selection accuracy and allowing lower generation intervals in many species. Despite the rapid reduction in genotyping costs the economic investment required to implement genomic selection can still be considerable. For some species such as dairy cattle, the costs of genotyping can be easily offset against the increased selection response and improvements in the breeding programme design. However, for agricultural species such as avian’s, the investment can be considerable and strategies to reduce genotyping costs can be explored. Sharing experience and research outcomes, during the presentation the use of low density (LD) SNP panels in genomic selection and aligned projects will be covered. The use of LD-SNP panels for value adding to experimental populations will be outlined.