Investigation of the reliability of genomic selection using combined reference data of the Nordic Red populations

Genomic Selection is becoming a popular tool in cattle breeding, where selection is based on breeding values predicted directly from dense sets of genetic markers. Each genetic marker from a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) panel is potentially in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with a quantitative trait locus. An effect for each allele at the individual marker loci is then estimated by fitting a model to phenotypic data from the reference animals which have both genomic and phenotypic records (or pseudo-observations). The genomic breeding value of a candidate with no phenotypic record is then predicted as the sum of all marker effects. This value is called the direct genomic estimated value (DGV)(Meuwissen et al. (2001)).