A stochastic genetic simulation of adult MOET breeding nucleus schemes was carried out. A finite panmitic population with discrete generation and selection for a trait under an infinitesimal model were assumed. The heritabilities of .25, .35 and .45 and the repeatability of .50 were considered. Different population sizes (N), mating strategies (A), number of MOET progenies (P) and number of sires selected from full sib family (R) used in the definition of the nucleus scheme were evaluated. Population sizes were of 16 donors/8 sires, 16 donors/4 sires and 32 donors/4 sires. Mating strategies were hierarchical (H) - each donor was mated to only one sire, factorial I (F-I) - each donor was mated to two sires, and factorial II (F-II) - each donor was mated to four sires. The number of MOET progenies from each donor by superovulation was 4 or 8. The number of selected sires from each full sib family was 1 or 2. Generation interval (IG) of 3.89 years was used whatever the mating strategy evaluated and the IG of 4.15 was also used when the F-II mating strategy was evaluated. All factors evaluated affected significantly (P<0.05) the genetic gain for all heritabilities considered. Interactions between N×A, N×R and P×A were also significant (P<0.05). The interaction A×R had a significant effect (P<0.05) only for heritabilities of .25 and .35. All factors studied for all heritability values had a significant effect (P<0.05) on the inbreeding rate. The N×P, N×A, N×R and P×A interactions had also a significant effect (P<0.05) on the inbreeding rate. It was strengthened that the MOET efficiency in producing viable embryos and positive pregnancies, besides the degree of reduction in IG, are responsible for the genetic progress rate in the MOET selection nucleus schemes.
MOET nucleus; genetic gain; inbreeding; simulation
