Application of genomic selection (GS) in breeding commercial meat-type chickens

Publication date: 20/07/2020
Extent: 18 pages

Contributions by: Andreas Kranis, Roslin Institute – University of Edinburgh and Aviagen Ltd, UK; and Gerasimos Maniatis, Aviagen Ltd, UK

Chapter synopsis: This chapter describes the implementation stages of genomic selection in meat-type chickens (broilers), beginning from the initial phase of testing the methodology to current developments where the technology has been consolidated into the commercial breeding programmes. This chapter focuses on broilers, highlights the unique characteristics of the industry and discusses how these have shaped the implementation of genomic evaluations for meat-type chickens. These characteristics explain why broiler breeders have targeted their efforts to ensure that genomic evaluations increase the prediction accuracy of genetic merit compared to the industry-standard of using only pedigree information for genetic evaluations. To achieve this objective, various prediction models have been applied to broiler genomic datasets. The chapter provides a summary of the results in terms of the prediction accuracy. As genomic selection is now a mature technology, the chapter offers a view on the next steps of how to further exploit the rich genomic datasets that the breeding organisations are rapidly accumulating.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2020.0065.20