The effect of selection on genetic parameter estimates

Abstract

A simulation study was carried out to investigate the effect of selection on the estimation of genetic parameters for butterfat production in dairy cattle. It was found that selection leads to a substantial overestimation of fixed effects and variance components and an underestimation of heritability estimates. This effect was attributed to the fact that all information on all animals in the analysis should be available to compensate for the effect of selection.


(South African Journal of Animal Science, 2001, 31(2): 107-114)