Possibility of creating a reference population of Ayrshire cattle

Purpose: the goal is to study the abundance, distribution area and genetic similarity of regional populations of the Ayrshire breed of the Russian Federation for the possibility of forming a reference population and conducting a genomic assessment using modern methods for small populations of cattle.Materials and methods. The material was articles and presentations of domestic and foreign researchers, statistical data on the breeding and bovine livestock of the Ayrshire breed of dairy cattle in yearbooks, bulletins and catalogs for evaluating bulls of enterprises in Russia. Studied and analyzed electronic resources.Results. To introduce genomic selection (GS) for Ayrshire cattle of Russia, it is necessary to form a reference population, which will be used to link molecular markers (SNPs) with the breeding value of animals evaluated using the BLUP method. At the same time, with an increase in the accuracy of the assessment of animals and the accumulation of livestock, the reliability of the genomic assessment increases. Accounting for the productive traits of the descendants and daughters of bulls is necessary to replenish and update the reference population in order to obtain a more accurate genomic assessment in the future. With the introduction of GS, the genetic progress of the population will accelerate, the generation interval and economic costs for the producer will decrease. The accuracy of genomic prediction increases significantly and will exceed the prediction for parental individuals.Conclusion. As a result of the analysis, it was found that in the coming years it is possible to form a reference population for the genomic assessment of Ayrshire cattle. The reference population will allow as soon as possible to start the process of introducing GS to breed highly productive domestic animals, since today the Ayrshire cattle of Russia cannot compete not only at the world level with the leaders of animal husbandry, but also within the country with imported genetics.