Estudo da estrutura populacional da raça Braford com base no pedigree

Abstract

Synthetic breeds produced by crossing Bos taurus indicus and Bos taurus taurus, as the Braford, have gained many breeders due to their resilience to perform under harsh environments and good productive and reproductive performance. Currently, due to high production costs, the search for efficiency in beef cattle production systems is increasing and selection of animals for performance, prioritizing traits of higher economic value has proved to be extremely important. The tool used to increase the frequency of favorable alleles in a population is the genetic improvement. However, this process can lead to significant changes in the genetic structure of populations resulting in increased homozygosity, inbreeding and reduction of genetic diversity, which is very important to optimize the adaptability and allow sustained genetic progress. For these reasons, it is essential to monitor the genetic structure of populations under selection in order to maintain low inbreeding rates and ensure genetic progress. Given this premise, the main goal of this work was to characterize the population structure of Brazilian Braford breed included in its studbook in order to quantify the variables that might be influenced by the selection strategies such as inbreeding, effective population size (Ne) and generation interval; assess the genetic profile of the top ten Braford bulls by comparing the averages of expected progeny differences (EPDs) with the population evaluated in the genetic program PampaPlus for birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), yearling weight (YW), yearling scrotal (SC), final index ranking (FIR) and the average levels of inbreeding provided by the program. The pedigree file containing 278,095 records was analyzed and the parameters were computed using the program POPREP. The study showed that pedigree integrity is improving over the years, which benefits the accuracy of genetic evaluations. The average generation interval was 5.8 years and it was observed a gradual increase in the average age of parents at the birth of their progeny, an increase in reproductive longevity of dams and low sire replacement. The increase in the inbreeding coefficient over the years is considerably low (F = 0.000116, but the number of inbred animals is growing with an average coefficient of inbreeding in the last five years years (2008 to 2013) of 4.8% and it should be monitored in the population to not affect the genetic progress. The effective population size calculated trough the census of parents and individual inbreeding coefficient were 3.363 and 160 respectively, being distant from the limit considered dangerous and indicating the existence of good genetic variability for effective selection. The genetic profile of the ten main bulls showed superiority in 50% of the lines indicating genetic progress within the breed. The progenies´ inbreeding coefficient (F = 0.0085) indicates that breeders can use these genetic lines since there are genetic variation among them. The increase in the number of breeders and purebred animals indicates expansion of the breed. Notwithstanding, only 30% of the Braford breeders are enrolled in the Braford improvement program. In conclusion, the Braford population studied has plenty of genetic variation to be used in selection and there is a good potential of genetic gains to be achieved through genetic improvement programs.