A Perspective on the Past and Future of Genetic Evaluations for Economically Important Traits in Cattle

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last half-century, genetic evaluations have undergone steady progress in animal breeding programs. The development of methodological in terms of genetic theory and statistics along with technological advances in computing has resulted in analyses with high power and performance. The application and development of genetic evaluations have played a pivotal role in successful and progressive selection in many important traits in the cattle industry. In the pre-genomic era, traditional selection using information on phenotypes and pedigree to predict breeding values were considered by long generation intervals. With the introduction of high-density SNP chips and the use of genomic information, breeding schemes are undergoing major restructuring worldwide. Additionally, the application of genomic evaluation has led to the inclusion of more traits in the selection indices so that there is growing interest in the introduction of novel traits. Therefore, the possibilities of recording phenotypic performance, breeding goals, and breeding programs need to be reassessed. Further, more studies are necessary to determine whether the genetic architecture of the traits of interest and the population structure can be influenced to improve genomic prediction accuracy. In this issue, we will describe the application of genetic evaluation when a trait in a population is evaluated for the first time; for this, it is important to compare the accuracy of predictions from several genomic models to those obtained with a pedigree-based model, and how these changes will affect the future of the cattle industry.

Prof. Dr. Deukhwan Lee
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.