Genotype interaction by production level in the genetic evaluation of European Swiss cattle in Mexico

Abstract

Genetic improvement programs include herds that differ in factors such as climate, nutrition, management conditions, among others, which is reflected in the productive level of the animals. The objective of this study was to determine the magnitude of the genotype interaction by production level (PGI) for weight at 365 days of age (BP) in European Swiss bovine recorded in Mexico. In total, 12,928 PA records of animals born in the period 1988 to 2011 were used, with a pedigree of 27,844 animals. The information was provided by the Mexican Association of Swiss Cattle Breeders Registry. Three environments were defined according to the phenotypic average of PA of the contemporary group: low (n = 3,993), medium (n = 5,164) and high (n = 3,771). The components of variance were obtained using an animal model and with the ASReml software, in which each environment was defined as a different characteristic (bivariate analyzes). The model included the fixed effect of the contemporary group and the direct additive genetic effect as random. The estimated heritability varied between 0.09 and 0.23 across the different pairs of environments. The estimated genetic correlations were 0.45, 0.14, and 0.68 for low vs. medium, low vs. high, and medium vs. high, respectively. The presence of PGI in this study suggests heterogeneity of variances between defined environments. The genetic correlation values obtained indicate the presence of the genotype interaction by level of production for the weight per year of the population of Swiss European cattle, so this effect should be considered in future genetic evaluations.