Advances in Statistical Methods for Genetic Improvement of Livestock [Paperback]

Developments in statistics and computing as well as their application to genetic improvement of livestock gained momentum over the last 20 years. This text reviews and consolidates the statistical foundations of animal breeding. This text will prove useful as a reference source to animal breeders, quantitative geneticists and statisticians working in these areas. It will also serve as a text in graduate courses in animal breeding methodology with prerequisite courses in linear models, statistical inference and quantitative genetics.Developments in statistics and computing as well as their application to genetic improvement of livestock gained momentum over the last 20 years. This text reviews and consolidates the statistical foundations of animal breeding. This text will prove useful as a reference source to animal breeders, quantitative geneticists and statisticians working in these areas. It will also serve as a text in graduate courses in animal breeding methodology with prerequisite courses in linear models, statistical inference and quantitative genetics.I: General.- 1 Statistical Methods in Animal Improvement: Historical Overview.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 Pearsons Pioneering Work.- 1.3 Fishers Work of the Late Teens and the Twenties.- 1.4 Wrights Work of the Teens and Twenties.- 1.5 Lush and Wright  Early Prediction Methods.- 1.6 Selection Index.- 1.7 Early Development of Linear Model Methods for Unbalanced Data.- 1.8 Derivation of Best Linear Unbiased Prediction.- 1.9 The Development of Methods for Estimation of Variances and Covariances.- 1.10 Some Recent Developments in Computing Strategies.- 1.11 Recent Work in Optimum Selection Criteria.- 2 Mixed Model Methodology and the Box-Cox Theory of Transformations: A Bayesian Approach.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Motivation: A Simple Sire Evaluation Model.- 2.3 Family of Transformations.- 2.3.1 Prior Distributions.- 2.4 Some Posterior Distributions.- 2.4.1 Joint Posterior Distribution of all Parameters.- 2.4.2 PostlCÏ