A REDUCED ANIMAL-MODEL WITH ELIMINATION OF QUANTITATIVE TRAIT LOCI EQUATIONS FOR MARKER-ASSISTED SELECTION

A reduced animal model (RAM) version of the method with the animal mod el proposed by Hoeschele for marker-assisted selection is presented. T he current RAM approach allows simultaneous evaluation of fixed effect s, the total additive genetic merits for parent animals and the additi ve effects due to quantitative trait loci linked to the marker locus o nly for animals which have the marker data or provide relationship tie s among descendant animals with known marker data. An appropriate cova riance matrix of the residual effects is given, and formulae for backs olving for non-parent animals are presented. A numerical example is al so given.