4 - Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture

Natlonal Workshop-cum-Training on Bldnfwmaticr and Informatton ManagemWnt in Aquaculture
10. Selection Index Program (SIP)
Selection index theory plays an important role in teaching animal breeding. It
can be used to determine the expected response to selection. The department of
Animal breeding and the department of informatics have worked on the
development of user-friendly program to calculate selection indexes. Johan Van
Arendonk developed the program. The program SIP can calculate many selection
indexes. These selection indexes may be based on economic value as desired
gain or on a combination of both. The program is written in Turbo vision. The
program can create a number of temporary files, which can be deleted after
leaving the program. The program will start in DOS promt. The important steps
in operating SIP is as follows,
irst we have to set trait dialog box.
Then we have to set r, and r, boxes.
Next we have to set group dialog box which includes additive genetic relationship
and number of observation.
Then we have to set genetic relation dialog box
Common environment box is the next to be filled in.
Sources of index is marked next
Breeding goal is set next
And finally through calculation box index can be calculated.
11. Genetlc Parameter Estimation in Excel (GPEX)
GPEX runs in Excel 97 or higher versions. Size is about 60 MB for analysis of
about 5000 observations. User is not required to have advanced programming
skills. To some extent it could be a good alternative to using top of the line
statistical packages in estimation of genetic parameters. It can handle
unbalanced data and handle 48 full sib groups with maximum 150 progeny per
full sib groups. It can calculate genetic parameter like intra-class correlation,
additive genetic, environmental and phenotypic variance, covariance, correlation,
and heritability. It can also predict breeding values based on calculated genetic
parameters from data and accuracy also can be calculated.
PEST
Pest is a software package for multivariate prediction and estimation. It covers
fixed, random and mixed model. Pest read raw data and translates class codes
like month name integer or character identification of animal into internal
representation. Identification can be up to 16 characters long. A parameter file
contains commands to pest. It consists of input data description, the statistical
model, output, data transformations etc. Pest is written in FORTRAN 77. It
conslsts of around 15000 lines of source code in 250 routines. PEST provides
very general and flexible strategies to solve mixed model equations. Its objective