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The future of genomic prediction
Current state of genomic selection and prediction in daily breeding programmes, and where do we need to go in the future? These issues were discussed during one of the monthly Breed4Food meetings organized on October 3 in Wageningen.
Hendrix Genetics, Cobb, CRV and Topigs presented the current state of genomic prediction within their companies. Fifty B4F participants listened carefully to the diversity presented by the companies. Not only statistics and genomics are important, but especially logistics is an important challenge when implementing genomic selection. How to control the sampling routine and get the genomic predictions ready at the moment of selecting candidate animals.
The link with genomic prediction in plant breeding was illustrated by Prof. Fred van Eeuwijk. His message was that when implementing genomic prediction, plant breeders should not ignore the model developments that happened over the past years. Also in genomic prediction models environmental sensitivity and the importance of background genes should be taken into account.
Finally, an overview was given by Prof. Roel Veerkamp on the papers presented during the recent Interbull and EAAP meetings in Nantes, France. Single-step genomic prediction, combining the information of genotyped and non-genotyped animals, was the hot topic, certainly in cattle breeding. Several different approaches have become available in the past years, and gave the Breed4Food partners food for thought for future developments.