There’s been a lot of excitement about equine genomic research over the past couple years, but horse buyers and breeders are still waiting for practical performance applications. The good news is that a team of French researchers might be hot on the trail to genomic evaluation of performance–even if that trail seems slow and winding–one researcher said at a recent research conference.

"This is the first effort at developing a genomic performance evaluation in horses," said Anne Ricard, PhD, a genetics researcher at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) in Joay-en-Josas, France. Presented to the public at the 2012 French Equine Research Day held March 1 in Paris, Ricard’s research was met with positive criticism from fellow equine and agricultural researchers. Although not yet ready to be used in the horse industry, the project could result in practical applications in the near future.

"There is a lot of potential for this genomic evaluation to surpass the classic genetic system of estimated breeding values," she said. "I have already detected several paths for improvement that could lead us to that point."

Inspired by the results of a genomic performance evaluation in dairy cattle, Ricard and colleagues investigated 908 French sport horses, primarily stallions, using a 54,602 code DNA analysis chip. The group included several families of two or three generations as well as subgroups of half-brothers, which gave the researchers a better opportunity to study genetic performance links, she said