Browsing by Author "Dey, Methun Chandra"

Inbreeding is a significant concern in animal breeding programs as it can lead to decreased genetic diversity, impaired fertility and production traits and a higher prevalence of genetic disorders. Therefore, estimation of inbreeding in pig breeds is crucial for the development of breeding programs that maintain genetic diversity while also improving production traits and health. In this study, inbreeding coefficients were estimated using both pedigree-based methods and runs of homozygosity (ROH) based methods. Pedigree-based methods involve tracing the ancestry of individuals through a pedigree, while ROH-based methods use genomic data to identify regions of the genome that are homozygous due to common ancestry. The results from the two methods were compared to evaluate their effectiveness in estimating inbreeding coefficient in the two pig breeds. The study used data from 941 pigs with both genotype and pedigree information and found that ROH-based estimates were higher than pedigree-based estimates even though the differences were not too big. The results also showed that the pig breeds had moderate levels of inbreeding, with the mean inbreeding coefficient estimated from pedigree were 0.15 and 0.11 for Yorkshire and Landrace, respectively; mean inbreeding coefficient from runs of homozygosity were 0.18 and 0.16 for Yorkshire and Landrace, respectively. These findings are important for pig breeding programs as they highlight the need to monitor and manage inbreeding levels to maintain genetic diversity and prevent potential negative effects on production traits and health traits. The results also demonstrate the usefulness of ROH-based analysis in estimating inbreeding levels and identifying recent inbreeding events in pig populations. In conclusion, this study will provide an extensive comparative analysis of estimation of inbreeding coefficient through pedigree and genomic information that will be useful in the breeding strategies of these Finnish pig breeds.