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Pedigree data of the Border Collie dog breed were collected in Hungary to examine genetic diversity within the breed and its different lines. The database was based on available herd books dating from the development of the breed (in the late 1800s) to the present day. The constructed pedigree file consisted of 13,339 individuals, of which 1566 dogs (born between 2010 and 2016) composed the alive reference population which was active from breeding perspective. The breed is subdivided by phenotype, showing a thicker coat, harmonic movement, a wide skull, and heavier bones for the show type, and a thinner or sometimes short coat and smaller body for the working line, while the mixed line is quite heterogeneous (a combination of the above). Thus, the reference population was dissected according to the existing lines. The number of founders was 894, but eight individuals were responsible for contributing 50% of the genetic variability. The reference population had a pedigree completeness of 99.6% up to 15 generations and an inbreeding coefficient of 9.86%. Due to the changing breed standards and the requirements of the potential buyers, the effective population size substantially decreased between 2010 and 2016. Generation intervals varied between 4.09 and 4.71 years, where the sire paths were longer due to the later initial age of breeding in males compared to females. Genetic differences among the existing lines calculated by fixation indices are not significant; nonetheless ancestral inbreeding coefficients are able to show contrasts.

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The aim of this study was to estimate variance components of racing ability in Thoroughbreds involved in steeplechase races. Race results were collected from steeplechase races in France (n=9041), in the United Kingdom and Ireland (n=8314) and contained the results of overall 106 020 runs from 1998 to 2003. Performance was measured by two criteria: earnings and ranks after mathematical transformation. The effects of year, sex, age, and race were considered as fixed, animal, permanent environment and maternal as random. Maternal environmental component for ranks were 0.021 in France and 0.000 in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Estimated heritabilities for the ranking criteria were 0.18 (repeatability 0.33) in France and 0.06 (repeatability 0.19) in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The high genetic correlation between the two traits (0.94 and 0.97) gives the opportunity to find out the most suitable criteria for breeding value estimation

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