Phenotypic performance of gilts and young boars can be predicted from their estimated breeding values for growth rate and backfat

Abstract

Estimated Brooding Values (EBVs) obtained from genetic evaluation programs such as PIGBLUP (Henzell, 1995) are used by breeders to select genetically superior animals. The PIGBLUP program uses information from all relatives, therefore an animal without records can obtain an EBV for a trait using information from relatives. Differences in EBVs represent the expected differnce in phenotypic performance of these animals. The aim of this study was to obtain EBVs for average daily gain and backfat of gilts and young boars and to compare ranking on these EBVs with mean phenotypic performances.