ABSTRACT
This chapter describes techniques to utilize genetic markers in commercial animal breeding, and to estimate the expected gains from marker-assisted selection (MAS). The commences with a discussion on the current methodologies and achievements of practical animal breeding. The chapter also discusses the limitations of traditional methods and explains how MAS may be useful in situations where traditional methods have not been. It then describes the steps necessary to employ MAS on commercial animal populations with emphasis on location of QTL affecting economic traits, and elaborate on advantages of MAS for within- and between-breed genetic improvement. Traditional selection techniques have not been able to increase the economic efficiency of beef cattle, because the traits with definite economic value, such as feed consumption or fertility traits, are either difficult to measure or have low heritability.
