In summary: Own performance is valuable for a trait with a high heritability. Phenotypes collected on half sibs are more valuable than those on full sibs. Even more valuable are phenotypes collected on half sib progeny: no common environment with the animal, generally larger potential numbers available, and offspring receive the true half of the genetic potential of the animal. This all allows for the most accurately estimated breeding value.
...
This difference in accuracy may be a result of a different heritability. The higher the heritability, the more accurate the EBV. But it can also be a result of suboptimal quality of information source, for example only a limited number of offspring, that could be used to determine the regression coefficient. In that case, in a next round of breeding value estimation it is likely that more information has become available. More information usually means that the regression coefficient can be better determined, and thus that the breeding value can be estimated more accurately. This can have consequences for the size of the best estimate, and thus for the ranking of the animals!! This is exactly why EBV, especially of the young animals with little information available, may change with new runs of breeding value estimation. If they do, it is uncertain in which direction they will change: up or down is equally likely.
Paneel | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||
Thus: the lower the accuracy of an EBV, the larger the riskĀ of a change in EBV when new information sources (e.g. offspring) become available. |
...