The Age Program

 

The AGE program is a progeny improvement program run byt the Australian Alpaca Association. This explanation appeared on  the Get Farming website www.getfarming.com.au

 

In 2003 the Australian Alpaca Association implemented a service for all AAA members to assist them in achieving their individual breeding objectives. It is called the Across-herd Genetic Evaluation (AGE) Service. The primary aim of the service is to assist members to maximise their herd's genetic improvement. A broad range of traits is catered for to ensure all members' breeding objectives will be assisted. Private and Public reports will allow both breeders and commercial fleece producers to take advantage of the information produced by the AGE service. In 2004 the AGE Project was extended to members of the New Zealand Alpaca Association (AANZ). Whilst involvement of breeders in the AGE service is strictly voluntary, the success of the AGE will play a major role in ensuring prosperous development of the alpaca industry in Australia and New Zealand.

Maximising your breeding and marketing outcomes
Like all livestock breeders, alpaca breeders are constantly striving to improve their breed. Improvement is generally seen as a better "product", and in the alpaca industry, different people may see a better "product" as being different things. For most it will be larger quantities of more valuable fibre, incorporating such things as fineness, softness, lustre, and evenness of colour. For others the emphasis may be on better conformation, higher fertility, bigger body weights, or resistance to disease and illness.

The role of genetics
Wherever improvement is sought, genetic factors are likely to play an important part in determining that improvement, and different alpaca vary in their ability to deliver that genetic improvement to their offspring.

It is the job of geneticists to measure that ability across a range of characteristics (traits), and report to breeders which animals are most likely to pass on their genetic improvement in any given trait to their progeny. They do so by gathering performance and pedigree data, collating these records and applying genetic analysis. Whilst improvement may still occur without this process, the rate of genetic gain is likely to be much slower, and much less certain.

AGE Service
The Australian Alpaca Association has implemented just such a service from 2003. It is called the Across-herd Genetic Evaluation (AGE) Service. The AAA and AANZ invite members to measure and collect performance data for their alpacas on traits important to them from a broad range of traits considered to be important to genetic improvement of the breed. The data collected will be used to calculate the genetic performance values for individual alpacas and their relatives. The genetic performance values will account for the effects of such variables as climate, management, sex and age. The outcome will be that breeders can compare any two individual alpacas evaluated in the AGE, or any individual alpaca with the industry benchmark. They can be also used to benchmark a herd or the industry on a yearly basis, thereby indicating the annual rate of genetic improvement.

This exciting development is a reflection of the strong commitment of the Australian and New Zealand alpaca industries towards establishing a viable and productive rural industry based on the alpaca breed. The traditional method of making genetic improvement through breeding decisions has been based purely on show results, on-farm appraisal, and the comprehensive pedigree and colour records included in the International Alpaca Register (IAR). The IAR is a database owned by the AAA, but independently managed and administered by the Agricultural Business Research Institute (ABRI), University of New England, Armidale NSW, on their behalf. The AGE database is similarly owned by the AAA but administered and managed by a professional breeding service (Advanced Breeding Services, Orange NSW), and will be linked to the IAR, thus combining two powerful databases with a high level of connectivity. The result is an extremely powerful genetic selection tool that will revolutionise the way in which genetic improvement is progressed in the Australasian alpaca industry.

Small cost
AAA and AANZ members are invited to enrol their alpacas in the AGE service and submit initial data. Members in Australia and New Zealand pay a small fee (currently A$5.50 and NZ$5.65 for each enrolled alpaca, regardless of the amount of data entered). There are additional subsidies from the respective Associations and Government bodies to cover the development costs. Further payments from members are only required in subsequent years if further data for that alpaca is submitted. For each enrolled alpaca, owners will be invited to measure and record any of up to about 30 selected traits according to strict protocols. Those traits and protocols are defined with input from breeders, geneticists and other scientists.

Large benefits
After breeders supply their alpacas' performance records, the AGE service will provide reports to breeders for each enrolled alpaca indicating its performance in each of the assessed traits, and also a comparison to the industry benchmark. By measuring those same values in relatives and progeny, geneticists can define what is called an Alpaca Breeding Value (ABV) for each trait that an alpaca is evaluated. An ABV is a measure of that alpaca's ability to pass on improvement in that trait to its progeny. The value will be reported as a positive or negative value relative to the industry benchmark. ABV are equivalent to EBV used in other livestock industries.

Breeders can also combine several ABV's for any given alpaca into a single value that describes that animal's value in breeding towards a given breeding objective. A breeder's objective can be defined by nominating those traits most important to their selection, and according them a relative importance. Once defined, a breeding objective can be written as a simple mathematical formula. The outcome from the formula is a single value for each alpaca called a Breeding Objective Value (BOV). Any alpaca recorded in the AGE can be measured against such a Breeding Objective by simply inserting its ABVs for the various traits into the equation that defines the Breeding Objective and obtaining the resulting Breeding Objective Value (BOV). In this way a group of alpaca can be compared and ranked according to their suitability for the relevant breeding objective.

The rate of genetic improvement in alpaca by traditional breeding selection is likely to be about 1% to 1.5% per annum. Experience in other livestock suggests that, if alpaca breeders utilise the AGE service, breeders' herd genetic improvement can be increased to 4 or 5% per annum.

The sales prospects for stud males and females described by genetic performance values are also greatly improved because buyers can select the most suitable animals more accurately and easily. As well, with emerging technologies to extend Artificial Insemination and Embryo Transfer to alpacas, a sound understanding of the genetic performance values of animals included in these breeding programs will be essential to maximise the advantages of these technologies.

Improved Accuracy of Breeding Decisions
An alpaca's ABV for a trait is more accurate than its measured performance alone, as it accounts for the following effects on performance which, if not taken into account, will mask an alpaca's "true breeding value":

• Early age effects. Age of the dam and date of birth of the alpaca must be accounted for so that, for example, an animal born late in the season is not penalised relative to an earlier born animal.
• Pedigree. Pedigree records allow the performance of relatives of an alpaca to be used to more accurately describe the performance that animal will pass on to its progeny. For example, it is known that an animal whose relatives all have well above average performance for a trait will breed progeny that also demonstrate above average performance, notwithstanding that the animal itself may demonstrate only average performance. Pedigree records also provide the benchmarks that allow different mating groups, different years and different herds to be combined in the AGE so that all alpaca ABVs can be directly compared.
• Heritability and Correlations between traits. Once known, the heritability of a trait (how much of an animal's superiority is passed onto offspring) and correlations between traits (the effects of one trait on another) can be accounted for by the AGE analysis. The heritability of a trait's performance can change with age, which is why it will be important to record an alpaca's age and fleece growth at the time of assessment. The degree of constancy of some traits over time (eg. fibre diameter and fibre length) will also be valuable.
• Multiple assessments of a trait. Breeders often obtain several assessments of a trait (e.g. fibre diameter) over the life of an animal and commonly the best estimate of genetic performance is a combination of all assessments for the trait.
• Variation in trait performance. Variation between and within different groups is an effect of the environment and feed the alpaca is subject to, as well as other influences such as prior selection. To obtain accurate ABVs the assessed records need to be standardised to remove the effects of unusually high or low variance in the group resulting from the environment and prior selection.

Using Breeding Objective Values
A Breeding Objective Value (BOV) summarises into one number the performance of an animal for two or more traits, thus simplifying and improving the consistency of selection. BOV data will be of particular assistance to farmers developing a commercial fleece production herd who are not regularly making stud-breeding selections.

Without a BOV a person selecting animals must consistently balance in his or her head the performance for all the traits they consider important. A BOV assists by combining the traits of interest, thus allowing efficient evaluation of the overall merit of an animal for their breeding aims.

The balance in which traits are combined (the Breeding Objective Index) must match the breeding objective of the herd for which selections are being made. A range of standard BOV options will be made available as part of the AGE service. Participants may use one of these, or alternatively may wish to develop their own Personalised Index.

Calculation of an alpaca BOV is based on two components. The first is the alpaca's genetic performance for each trait, and the second is the emphasis in importance (weighting) that the breeder assigns to these traits. The weighting is a figure that incorporates the scale of measurement, the heritability of the trait, and the relative economic value of the trait. Weightings can be either + for those traits where an increase in the performance is desirable, such as fleece weight, or - where a decrease is desirable, as in reduced fibre diameter.

The BOV for each alpaca represents its combined weighted trait performance for the Breeding Objective of the herd, allowing all alpaca in the group to be ranked on their relative breeding worth to the herd (at least for the traits in the calculation).

AGE Reports
The following AGE reports will become available to participants as they are progressively developed for alpaca:

• Genetic Performance Report: All traits recorded in the AGE can be reported, including both recorded performance (expressed as deviations to the group average) and genetic performance for the traits where the available knowledge permits the calculation of ABVs. The breeder's comments (up to 20 characters) on an alpaca can be included.
• Breeding Objective Value Report: All alpaca can be assigned a Breeding Objective Value (BOV) for the Breeding Objective defined by the breeder, and then can be reported in rank order of BOV for the objective, or listed in tag order.
• Breeding Objective and Likely Genetic Progress Report: An Index to match the selected Breeding Objective can be developed, and the likely genetic progress that will result from its use in the participant's herd can be described.
• Genetic Trend Report: The genetic progress that is achieved each year for the traits that are evaluated can be defined.
• Mating Recommendation: Based on the genetic performance values and pedigree records of the herd, mating allocations can be made to maximise genetic progress and minimise inbreeding.

AGE training and support
The AAA will run training workshops throughout Australia for members interested in the AGE program, and additional workshops will be run in New Zealand by AANZ. It will be important for participants in the program to have a sound understanding of the process for standardised performance record collection, as well as the evaluation and application of the data to their own breeding operations. It is also anticipated that regional volunteers will be trained to assist breeders.

Implementation of the AGE in Australia's and New Zealand's alpaca industries is destined to see the alpaca firmly established in the fabric of Australasian agriculture.