A sampling method for estimating the accuracy of predicted breeding valuesin genetic evaluation

A sampling-based method for estimating the accuracy of estimated breeding v alues using an animal model is presented. Empirical variances of true and e stimated breeding values were estimated from a simulated n-sample. The meth od was validated using a small data set from the Parthenaise breed with the estimated coefficient of determination converging to the true values. It w as applied to the French Salers data file used for the 2000 on-farm evaluat ion (IBOVAL) of muscle development score. A drawback of the method is its c omputational demand. Consequently, convergence can not be achieved in a rea sonable time for very large data files. Two advantages of the method are th at a) it is applicable to any model (animal, sire, multivariate, maternal e ffects...) and b) it supplies off-diagonal coefficients of the inverse of t he mixed model equations and can therefore be the basis of connectedness st udies.