Inbreeding depression on fertility in Finnish Ayrshire

What is it about?

Estimation of the levels of inbreeding in dairy cattle using both pedigree and genomic methods and using these estimates to determine the effect of inbreeding on female fertility traits.

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Why is it important?

Inbreeding is unavoidable in closed populations and it can lead to inbreeding depression. Therefore, controlling the levels of inbreeding is important in breeding programs. This can be imporved by using genomic estimates of inbreeding which are more accurate than pedigree-based metrics.