Validation of genomic prediction for methane emissions in Australian Merino sheep

Methane emissions are being recorded in Merino sheep across Australia at a large scale. These records will form a reference population that will be used to estimate genomically predicted breeding values for methane for the sheep industry. This paper aims to determine the predictive ability of the current data to estimate methane rate (ml/min) EBVs using single step GBLUP. Phenotypic data was collected in research and commercial seedstock flocks using portable accumulation chambers. Accuracy of prediction was tested through cross validation, using individual flock data as independent test sets. Accuracy ranged from 0.02 and 0.42 for individual animal EBVs. The large range is likely due to variation in linkage with the reference population, environmental conditions prior to measurement, and some inconsistency of measuring protocol. Further work is needed to improve recording strategies and the size and diversity of the reference population.