The Alpaca Across-herd Genetic Evaluation (AGE) project has successfully established a most important genetic improvement tool for a commercial livestock industry. This report describes this achievement and its importance to rapid genetic improvement in the alpaca industry.
This research is of benefit primarily to Australian and New Zealand alpaca breeders to show them the progress achieved with the establishment of an Alpaca Across-herd Genetic Evaluation system and to encourage them to enter their alpacas into the AGE system.
An AGE commercial service has been established for the Australian alpaca industry. This service is a world first for the alpaca industry. In the analysis of March 2008 there were 100 herds, 1879 progeny and 3872 alpacas.
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