During her PhD studies, Lu Cao studied how to maximize the genetic improvement of a local dairy cattle population that allows selection of breeding animals from external populations. In this case, the local population takes the risk of selecting the best animals in the external environment that are not necessarily the best in its own environment. This risk is unfavorable for the genetic improvement of the local population and thereby the economic revenue of the farmers. Lu Cao studied the use of genomic selection technology and several across-environment selection strategies to maximize the genetic improvement of such a population.

The new research findings contribute to the optimization of dairy cattle breeding programs and reveal the mechanisms by which these recommended optimization methods maximize the genetic improvement.

The PhD study was completed at Center of Quantitative Genetics and Genomics (QGG), Faculty of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University.

This summary was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Thursday, 21 January 2021 at 13:00-16:00
Place: The PhD defence will be held online. To receive a link to the event, please send an e-mail to Louise Fischer Koue, lfkoue@qgg.au.dk.
Title of PhD thesis: Optimizing dairy cattle breeding programs in the presence of genotype-by-environment interaction
Contact information: Lu Cao, e-mail: cao.lu@qgg.au.dk, tel.: +45 50236211
Members of the assessment committee:
Professor Jörn Bennewitz, Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, University of Hohenheim, Germany
Professor Flavio Schenkel, Center for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, University of Guelph, Canada
Professor Just Jensen (chairman), QGG, Aarhus University, Denmark
Main supervisor: 
Senior researcher Anders Christian Sørensen, QGG, Aarhus University, Denmark
Co-supervisor: 
Associate professor Han Mulder, Animal Breeding and Genomics, Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands
Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English

The defence is public.

Due to the coronavirus situation, Aarhus University is physically closed. Therefore, the PhD thesis will not be available for reading at the offices of the PhD administration. Instead, interested parties may send an e-mail to gradschool.scitech@au.dk, and receive a digital copy of the PhD thesis. Please note, it may in certain cases be necessary to make an individual arrangement to read the PhD thesis.