Authors : Xiang Li , Yubo Zhang , Zhonglin Tang , Mei Yu , Bang Liu , Bin Fan , Shanping Xu , Zhongzhen Peng , Shu-hong Zhao and Mengjin Zhu
Abstract: The objective of this study is to explore the genetic bias of the empirical formula which was widely used to estimate the magnitude of 3-way heterosis in the pig industry of China. Additive and dominance genetic components partitioned from the Cockerham's model were used to derive the expectation of the heterosis effect from the 3-way crossbreds, which witnessed that the theoretical genetic bias of the expectation between the empirical formula and the Cockerham's model is half of the magnitude of heterosis of F1 single-cross. Following this research, we made a case analysis to reveal the difference of 3-way heterosis between the empirical formula and the Cockerham's model by using the field performance test data of economically important traits involving in growth, carcass and meat quality traits in pigs. The results indicated that the veracity of the empirical formula for 3-way heterosis estimation is conditional and for those traits with remarkable heterosis effects in F1 single-cross generation, other alternative estimation methods should be taken into account.
Xiang Li , Yubo Zhang , Zhonglin Tang , Mei Yu , Bang Liu , Bin Fan , Shanping Xu , Zhongzhen Peng , Shu-hong Zhao and Mengjin Zhu , 2009. Comparative Estimation on Three-Way Heterosis in Pigs Reveals Genetic Bias of the Widely Used Empirical Formula. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 8: 1212-1218.