Q: Why is the upgrade of the carcass traits in the IGENITY profile significant?
A: IGENITY is constantly working to improve the profile to offer beef producers the most powerful DNA tool available. The addition of more genetic markers to the IGENITY profile makes each carcass trait analysis more robust, which means they account for a greater amount of variation in the respective traits. The upgraded analyses can give producers even more confidence in using the IGENITY profile to help predict carcass traits in cattle.
Q: Why is the validation of these markers by the National Cattle Evaluation Consortium (NBCEC) important?
A: The purpose of the NBCEC commercial DNA analysis validation is to independently verify associations between genetic analyses and traits as claimed by the commercial genotyping companies using phenotypes and DNA from reference cattle populations. Third-party validation helps ensure the analyses available from IGENITY are an accurate tool for producers to use to help make more confident selection, management and marketing decisions about cattle early in every stage of production. IGENITY is committed to internal and third-party validation of the analyses available to beef producers through the comprehensive IGENITY profile. For more information, visit the NBCEC Web site.
Q: Will the new scores for these traits be significantly different than the old scores?
A: It is possible that an animal's score may vary slightly with the new analyses. However, the markers used previously were validated and did show a significant correlation to the expression of each trait.1 That means though the scores may change some, they are simply more informative now.
Q: How are markers discovered and validated before being added to the IGENITY profile?
A: The DNA markers in the IGENITY profile are discovered at universities and research institutions around the world. IGENITY often has exclusive licensing agreements with these universities and utilizes DNA markers made public by the USDA. The markers are then analyzed in a minimum of four separate commercial populations with different environments and breeds, and using multiple statistical models. Markers must have a similar, significant effect in all four populations in order to be included in the comprehensive IGENITY profile. IGENITY also works with independent third-party research institutions to validate many traits.
1Data on file at Merial.
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