ABSTRACT

A computer simulation experiment was conducted to evaluate the cumulative response to best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) and phenotypic selection for low and high heritability traits and in previously Selected, Unselected and Synthetic populations, typical of exotic and indigenous populations and their crossbreds used in tropical pig production. The QMSim simulation software was used to simulate the various population structures and the dataset was generated for traits with heritability 0.1 and 0.50 under a polygenic model assumption. A total of 1000 breeding animals were produced in each generation and a discreet generation was assumed. The results showed that greater genetic change is expected when using BLUP over phenotypic selection methods in short (38 – 48%) and long (41 – 48 %) terms across populations especially for traits with low heritability. All population structures are expected to benefit from BLUP selection method, however, crossbred populations typical of crosses between exotic and indigenous pig breeds are expected to benefit more from BLUP selection in a short term. Accuracy of selection was found to be greater with BLUP than with phenotypic selection across generation for low heritability traits. Tropical pig breeders can proceed to develop a pedigree and data recording system to enable the implementation of BLUP selection schemes in their various herds.