Genomic Heritability of Bovine Growth Using a Mixed Model

This study investigated heritability for bovine growth estimated with genomewide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) information obtained from a DNA microarray chip. Three hundred sixty seven Korean cattle were genotyped with the Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChip, and 39,112 SNPs of 364 animals filtered by quality assurance were analyzed to estimate heritability of body weights at 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, and 24 months of age. Restricted maximum likelihood estimate of heritability was obtained using covariance structure of genomic relationships among animals in a mixed model framework. Heritability estimates ranged from 0.58 to 0.76 for body weights at different ages. The heritability estimates using genomic information in this study were larger than those which had been estimated previously using pedigree information. The results revealed a trend that the heritability for body weight increased at a younger age (6 months). This suggests an early genetic evaluation for bovine growth using genomic information to increase genetic merits of animals.