Progeny testing is a technique used to estimate the breeding value of sires based on the average performance of their offspring. Each offspring receives half of its genes from its sire, so evaluating the performance of a large number of progeny provides a better indication of a sire's breeding value. Progeny testing is commonly done for males since they can produce more offspring than females. Primary selection is based on sibling averages, with bulls having the highest averages selected for official progeny testing where their daughters' performances are analyzed to estimate the bull's breeding value. Testing more progeny per sire increases the accuracy by reducing sampling errors.

1. PROGENY TESTING
DR S.SHANAZ
DIVISION OF AGB

2. SELECTION BASED ON PROGENY TESTING
The idea of progeny testing is not new, advocated 2000 years ago by
Roman Varro
Robert Bakewell : first in eighteenth century by letting out bulls
and rams on an annual basis. , he could later use those which proved
to be outstanding transmitters
• Individuality tells us what an animal seems to be
• his pedigree tells us what he ought to be
• but the performance of his progeny tells us what he is
• Progeny testing is used to rate a sire or dam’s breeding value
• It attempts to evaluate the genotype of an individual on the basis of
its progeny’s performance

3. Genetic Principles of P.T
• Best way of determining the genetic make up of an individual
• Each parent contributes sample halves of genes to each offspring ,
so an effort to evaluate an individual (usually a male) on the basis of
one or a few offspring can be misleading
• Chance at segregation may result in any one or a few offspring
receiving a better or poorer than average sample of genes from the
parents
• Polygenic traits are influenced by environment and different
progenies of same parent do not get the same environment

4. The effect of two factors causing greater deviation
from true BV of a parent
A. Chance at segregation
B. Environmental factors
The effect is balanced by estimating B.V. based on
many progenies so that progeny mean gives more
accurate estimate of B.V.  Progeny Testing

5. • Important : All the progeny be included in progeny test appraisal
Omitting the poor progeny is unfair and misleading
• Progeny testing may be used in selection of traits expressed in both sexes
• When heritability is low, fewer progenies are required to make the
progeny test
• The accuracy of progeny test is reduced when there is an environmental
correlation among progenies due to non-genetic factors  when several
progeny tested sires are being compared, but their progeny had been
tested at different locations
• Feeding and management also influences the progeny group differences
• Progeny testing are conducted to compare the performance of progeny of
two or more parents
• Progeny testing is a technique generally used for males , male throw
more no of progenies, produce more progeny in a given season or year.

6. Factors affecting use of progeny testing
• Use of progeny test depends upon
– Accuracy of the test
– The number of sires to be tested during specified period of time
• For greater accuracy greater numbers of offspring are needed. If
more number of offspring has to be produced, then large numbers
of females have to be mated
• Progeny testing is carried out on the assumption that most of the
inheritance in livestock is due to additive genetic effects
• If there are sizeable dominant and epistatic effects, then the we
have to check whether the offspring’s performance is due to
additive genetic effects alone or is due to dominant and epistatic
effects

7. • With traits having very low heritability, large number of offspring
(10 or more) has to be used to get a reliable progeny test
• Artificial insemination and the advancement of techniques for the
freezing and storage of bovine semen have greatly extended the
use of outstanding progeny tested sires

8. Points to be considered
 Test as many as sires possible (5 to 10 would be minimal)
 Make sure that dams are mated to sires at random
 Produce as many progeny per sire as possible (10 to 15 progenies
of either sex for growth traits but up to 300 to 400 progeny is
required for traits like calving and fertility)
 No progeny should be culled until the end of the test
 Offsprings that are being tested are not a select group
 Performance of an adequate sample of an animal’s progeny under
normal environmental conditions will give a true indication of its
genotype than any knowledge of individuality or pedigree

9. PRECAUTIONS FOR PROGENY TESTING
• Dams mated to all sires on a given progeny test should be selected
randomly
• Feed all animals the same ration and in same manner to avoid bias
• Compare different parental groups raised in as nearly the same
environment as possible
• Compare the parent groups born during the same year or same season of
the year when possible
• Include all healthy progeny of a particular parent in the test, if possible
whether they are inferior or superior.  Mendelian and environmental
errors for each sire group becomes zero
• Pens should be rotated among progeny groups to reduce the pen effects

10. Methodology of Progeny Testing
• P.T. programme should be carried in associated herds to overcome
the problem of population size
• About 4-5 males should be kept under test for each required
progeny tested bull for future breeding
• About 50 pregnancies from each bull and 10 daughters of each bull
must be performance recorded
• Take a set of 10 bulls , two tested and 8 under test
• One set of bulls should be completed within a period of two years
• In each set , 8-10 males to be tested, 2 top ranking bulls are selected
on the basis of their B.V. estimated from their daughters
performance
 Two best proven bulls should be used on 60 best yielding cows to
get a set of young males and remaining 8 which are sons of proven
bull out of the total set of 10 should be used for remaining cows
No male should be kept from bulls under test

11. The breeding value of bull is then estimated by multiplying the
regression of BV of parent on the phenotypic performance of its
progeny with the selection differential of the Progeny of the ith sire
from the mean of contemporaries
(Pi-PC)
The regression b= r n h 2 /[1+(n-1)t]
= 0.5 n h2 //[1+(n-1)t ] = 2n h2 /[4+(n-1) h2 ]
since, t= 0 .25 h2
r is coefficient of relationship
t= intra class correlation
n= no of of progenies

12. • Larger the number of progeny tested per parent, the more accurate
the estimate of that parent’s probable breeding value
• Errors like effects of year, season and location should be eliminated
as far as possible
• The accuracy of selection that is the correlation of the genotype of
the parent with the average genotype of its progeny may be
calculated as:
PBV = h / 2  n /1 + (n-1) t
• Where,
h – square root of heritability
n – number of progeny per parent used in the average
t – ¼ h2 if progeny group is composed of half sibs and there is no
environmental correlations between sibs
• Testing of progeny at several locations using artificial insemination
and adoption of comparison of performance with contemporary
animals can increase the accuracy

13. ADVANTAGES OF PROGENY TESTING
• For selecting sex limited traits
• For selecting traits which require sacrifice of the animal
(carcass traits)
• For selecting traits expressed late in life
• For traits having low heritability value
• For selection of animals that nick or combine well
• For testing animals for recessive traits

14. Limitations
• More number of animals must be progeny tested
• It prolongs the generation interval
• It is time consuming and expensive
• Use of superior animals extensively and errors due to
environment that are not standard for the progeny are
more serious limitations
• Sires can be selected only when the progenies come for
production and by the time the sire may become old and
useless.  annual rate of genetic gain  lowered

15. constraints
• The two main constraints of P.T are:
• Small population size
Can be solved if sires are tested simultaneously in different associated
herds and the field testing with more no. of progeny accuracy will be
increased
• Unplanned mating: results in wastage of breeding data
• Non orthogonal data: unequal no of daughters for different sires
 Prepare calculative plan to obtain nearly equal progenies from
different sires
• As per tomar: 100 inseminations or 50 pregnancies from each
bull to get about 10 daughters for perfomance records

16. Summary Of Progeny Testing
• Progeny testing is estimating the breeding value of a sire based on
the average performance of its offspring.
• Each offspring receives a sample half of genes from the sire,
performance of large number of daughters will indicate the breeding
value of sire on progeny testing.
• Progeny testing is usually conducted for males as more number of
progenies can be produced for males
• Primary selection of the bulls is based on the sibs’ average.
• Bulls with highest averages are selected & included in the progeny
testing.
• Bulls are used on many females to produce many progenies. The
performances of progenies are then studied to estimate the
breeding value of each bull.
• The genetic principle behind progeny testing is that the more the
number of progeny are tested the greater the accuracy of
assessment of the parents, since the errors in sampling are reduced.