Génétique des caprins laitiers

Abstract

This review covers two parts of dairy goat genetics: genetic variation of traits and genetic improvement. Most knowledge on the genetic determinism of goat traits comes from polygenic analyses since generic molecular tools have been limited in this species. There are, however, some genes well studied at the molecular level such as milk casein and prion protein genes, whose effects on phenotypes are also discussed. In the genetic improvement chapter, we summarize the general principles of animal breeding, with and without the use of molecular data, before a discussion on the present practices and perspectives of dairy goat selection.