Genetic Improvements In Beef

3 Pages 851 Words

Genetic Improvements in the Beef Industry

Procedures of genetic evaluation of domestic animals for economically important traits experienced significant changes during the past half a century. These changes will accelerate in the future as a consequence of the emergence of new quantitative genetic tools currently being developed. These new genetic tools rely on biotechnologies developed from joint research and development efforts in areas as diverse as physical sciences, engineering, material sciences, computer sciences, physiology, molecular genetics, genomics, functional genomics, robotics, and nanotechnology.
The development of results among researchers from a wide range of scientific areas has opened the door for new and innovative solutions to current research problems, and reduced the length of time between research results and the development of applications in the field. These collaborations have occurred within universities, within private companies, and across universities and private research institutions. Substantial private industry support has probably been the major force behind this trend. Universities have become active participants in research-for-profit endeavors, a trend that is likely to continue and expand in the future.
All these biotechnological developments have had a comparatively small effect on the genetic improvement of domestic animals. Most of its impact, and current funding, have so far been aimed at solving problems related to human beings. However, many research results and techniques developed for humans as well as animal models for human research, are directly applicable to domestic animals. Thus, their impact on animal genetic improvement is likely increase in the future.
Use of genetic predictions to select future parents in the population. Genetic predictions have been used somewhat differently in beef and in dairy cattle. Indexes have been supplied in beef cattle sire summaries...