Beef cattle

Preliminary results show high genetic correlations for carcass traits in Japanese Black and F1 Angus cattle

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Abstract

Japanese Black cattle (Wagyu) are renowned for their exceptional marbling but slower growth. They are often crossed with higher-growth breeds such as Angus. This study aimed to estimate breed genetic correlations between Fullblood Japanese Black (Fullblood) and F1 (Japanese Black à— Angus) cattle for carcass traits, to assess whether Japanese Black estimated breeding values (EBVs) could be applied in crossbred programs. Carcass records were collected from two breeding programs comprising 1,276 Fullblood and 914 F1 animals. Carcasses were imaged using the Meat Image Japan (MIJ) camera for all Fullblood and 341 F1 cattle. Common sires were used across programs, and all animals were genotyped. Genotypes were imputed to 85,905 single nucleotide polymorphisms from three arrays (GGPLD30K, Versa50K, and GGP100K) using Minimac4. Carcass weight (CARCASS), AUS-MEAT P8 fat depth (P8), AUS-MEAT marbling score (MARBLE), and MIJ digital marbling percent (DMP) were evaluated. Genetic parameters were estimated using a linear mixed model with a genomic relationship matrix (Gà—E model) in ASReml-R 4.2, estimating separate residual and additive variance components and the genetic correlation (rPC) between populations. rPC is the genetic correlation between the two populations or between the two breed types. Heritability (SE) estimates were consistently lower in the F1 population compared with the Fullblood population, ranging from 0.31 (0.07) in F1 to 0.63 (0.05) in Fullbloods for CARCASS, 0.19 (0.06) to 0.36 (0.05) for P8, 0.46 (0.08) to 0.51 (0.05) for MARBLE, and 0.60 (0.14) to 0.68 (0.05) for DMP. Genetic correlations (rPC; SE) were high for CARCASS at 0.85 (0.16) and DMP at 0.81 (0.18), and moderate for P8 at 0.60 (0.28) and MARBLE at 0.64 (0.18). EBV correlations between populations exceeded 0.90 for all traits, indicating minimal reranking of animals across systems. These preliminary results indicate that selection using Fullblood Japanese Black breeding values can effectively improve carcass traits in both Japanese Black and F1 Japanese Black à— Angus populations.

Keywords: 2026

How to Cite:

Facy, M., Lloyd, A. & Grose, J., (2026) “Preliminary results show high genetic correlations for carcass traits in Japanese Black and F1 Angus cattle”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2285224. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.23639

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