a comparison of six animal breeding software packages

the objective followed in this study was to compare six software packages (dfreml, wombat, asreml, matvec, dmu and thrgibbsf90) as based on some such features as being user friendly, easing computational facilities as well as accuracy and precision of the estimated genetic vs. environmental parameters. for conduction of the study, simulated and field data (birth weights and weaning weight of baluchi lambs) were utilized. in all the softwares, except for thrgibbsf 90, estimates were obtained with restricted maximum likelihood method via ai algorithm, but in thrgibbsf 90, the estimates were obtained using bayesian gibbs sampling. the results showed that the choice of software depends on user interest and the goal followed in the research. since the estimated parameters come out to be similar, even in confidence intervals, there seems no concern to exist in estimation of genetic and environmental parameters (for continous variables) using linear models,and through an application of different softwares.