The genetic model of the base population, which underlines the genetic makeup of the descendant generations, can be based on one of the following: 

• infinitesimal model, mimicking a polygenic makeup,
• finite-locus model, mimicking individual genes and/or genetic markers, and 
• mixed-inheritance model, combining the infinitesimal and finite-locus models. 

Selection is carried out on single or multiple traits either randomly or by truncation or optimum contribution selection based on one of the following criteria: 

• phenotype, 
• BLUP (best linear unbiased prediction based on phenotype and pedigree information), 
• MA-BLUP (BLUP including marker information), and 
• GA-BLUP (BLUP including identified gene information). 

Selection can be carried out in single or multiple stages within sex, age, herd, full-sib families or populations. The selection criteria can differ between stages. 

Mating of the selected animals is carried out in a hierarchical or factorial mating design using one of the following mating criteria: 

• random, 
• minimum-coancestry, and 
• minimum covariance of ancestral contributions.

Mating takes place within or across herds.

The results that can be obtained include the true and estimated breeding values for each time step, overall and trait-wise genetic gain, generation interval and accuracy of the prediction. Inbreeding based on pedigree information and, optionally, inbreeding based on DNA information including the length of fixed regions on the genome is also calculated. Results are presented as summaries for all animals in each time step, and for each individual animal. The amount of output is optional as all data is stored in memory and can be printed if needed.

ADAM is written in Fortran 95 and is under continuous development at the Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Foulum. The program makes use of other programs for specific procedures: ' Randlib90 ' to generate random numbers; ' DMU6 ' release 4.5 to estimate breeding values; ' EVA ' for optimum contribution selection; and 'IBD' to calculate identity-by-descent matrices (Thomsen, 2006).

For further information and details, please consult the manual.