Systematic Approach for Compound Angus Populations Revealing Positional Candidate Genes and Improving Prediction Accuracy in Carcass Traits

Abstract

Simple Summary Beef cattle production plays an important role in providing high-quality animal products, and improving economically valuable traits can help increase production efficiency and sustainability. However, the biological factors that influence important carcass characteristics are complex and are not fully understood. In this study, we investigated the genetic factors affecting carcass performance in a group of crossbred Angus cattle and compared different approaches for identifying useful genetic information and predicting animal performance. We identified several regions of the genome that were related to important carcass characteristics and found that combining information from different cattle groups could improve the reliability of genetic prediction in some cases. We also demonstrated that using information about genetic relationships among animals provided more accurate predictions of future performance. These findings improve our understanding of the genetic basis of beef production traits and provide useful information for selecting superior cattle, which may contribute to more efficient and sustainable beef production.