Beef cattle

Genomic Best Linear Unbiased Prediction-based Estimation and Comparative Analysis of Carcass Traits in Hanwoo (Korean Brown Cattle)

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Abstract

Hanwoo (Korean Brown Cattle) breeding programs have increasingly adopted genomic selection (GS), particularly focusing on steers, to accelerate genetic improvement. This study aimed to investigate the genetic relationship between dams and their progeny steers by estimating and comparing genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) for carcass traits using the genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) method. The reference population comprised 9,170 steers with carcass phenotypes. The test population consisted of 962 animals forming 464 dam-progeny pairs (464 dams and 498 steers). Both dams and steers in the test population were directly evaluated using their respective carcass phenotypes obtained at slaughter, and all animals were genotyped using the Illumina Bovine SNP50K BeadChip. Four major carcass traits were analyzed: carcass weight (CWT), eye muscle area (EMA), backfat thickness (BFT), and marbling score (MS). Heritability estimates for the traits were moderate to high (CWT: 0.46, EMA: 0.39, BFT: 0.38, MS: 0.45). In the test population, the prediction accuracies of GEBVs ranged from 0.61 to 0.65 in dams and from 0.69 to 0.73 in steers. The coefficient of determination (R²) between GEBVs and phenotypes was higher in steers (0.59-0.72) than in dams (0.48-0.52). Notably, the genomic correlations of GEBVs between dams and their progeny steers exceeded 0.50 for all traits (P < 0.05). This strong positive correlation demonstrates that superior genetic merit in the dam directly translates to enhanced phenotypic performance in her progeny. These findings suggest that incorporating dam genomic and phenotypic data into current Hanwoo breeding systems can effectively predict progeny performance and significantly enhance the accuracy of genetic selection.

Keywords: 2026

How to Cite:

Oh, S. & Yoon, D., (2026) “Genomic Best Linear Unbiased Prediction-based Estimation and Comparative Analysis of Carcass Traits in Hanwoo (Korean Brown Cattle)”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2285262. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.23644

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