Influence of Amount of Pedigree Information and Parental Misidentification of Progeny on Estimates of Genetic Parameters in Jeju Race Horses

Abstract

The pedigree information and race records of 1,000 m finishing time of Jeju race horses at KRA were used to study the effect of amount of pedigree information and parental misidentification on the estimates of genetic parameters. The modified data sets were made at the range of 2.5 to 25% parental misidentifications or loss of parental information of individuals with an increment of 2.5 percent. For each incremental level, 20 randomly replicated data sets were obtained and analyzed by single-trait analysis with a DF-REML(AI) algorithm. As the rate of misidentification increased or the amount of pedigree information decreased, the estimates of fraction of additive genetics variance component gradually decreased almost linearly (p<0.05), while the estimated fractions of error variance and permanent environmental variance components gradually increased for the finishing time. Regression coefficients of the percentage amount of both parents' information loss and incorrect pedigree information on additive genetic variances were –0.079 and –0.114, respectively (p<0.01). The estimate of heritability decreased by 0.92% for one percent loss of both parents' information and 1.39% for one percent increase of both parental misidentifications of progeny (p<0.01). For the consideration of probable incorrect and missing parent information of progeny in this early population of Jeju horses, the estimates of additive genetic parameters would be biased downward about ten percent. This results indicate that the amount of pedigree information loss and misidentification of progeny would severely affect estimates of genetic parameters and would reduce genetic gains for selection in Jeju horse population.

Keywords

• misidentification
• pedigree information
• genetic parameter estimates
• jeju race horses