About MiXBLUP 3

MiXBLUP is a modern genetic evaluation system for all breeding organizations. It estimates genetic merit of individuals using phenotypes and genetic similarities, given the components of variance. Breeders and breeding organizations use estimated genetic merit to identify the most suitable individuals in a generation to become parents of the next generation. MiXBLUP offers potential to accelerate genetic progress in your breeding population.

MiXBLUP is easy to use, fast, suitable for simultaneous analysis of a large number of traits and able to fit complex models. It supports a wide range of methods to specify genetic similarity between individuals, such as pedigree relationships, genomic relationships, and regression on SNP genotypes.

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Availability

The MiXBLUP software can be downloaded from this website. A 30-days free trial license is available for evaluation purposes. A trial license allows you to do a full run, regardless of the number of equations, to be able to evaluate its performance. A commercial license is available for routine use. A small license at reduced cost is available for breeders with a relatively small population and pedigree relationships only. For large evaluations or the use of genomic relationships, a full license is required. For evaluation centers providing genetic evaluations as a commercial service, there are separate licenses available.

Advantages

MiXBLUP allows you to use sophisticated models in estimation of breeding values for all diploid species. MiXBLUP uses a range of fast, state-of-the-art solving algorithms. This ensures fast computation of estimated breeding values even if your evaluation model is complex and your population is large. MiXBLUP can be used in practice for modern applications, such as random regression models and social interaction models. Genetic similarity between individuals can be specified with pedigree and genomic information. MiXBLUP also calculates pedigree and genomic reliabilities that indicate how much information was available for each estimated breeding value. MiXBLUP 3 contains tools to improve the design of the genetic evaluation and verify that it works correctly.

Origin

MiXBLUP is developed by scientists of LUKE National Resources Institute Finland and Animal Breeding & Genomics of Wageningen UR in the Netherlands. The default solver of MiXBLUP is derived from the MiX99 software, developed by LUKE National Resources Institute Finland. MiXBLUP is currently used for routine evaluation of breeding populations worldwide of dairy cattle, beef cattle, horses, pigs, layers, dairy goats, sheep and dogs.

Support

The user license includes support for installing the software and for software related problems. Extensive documentation on MiXBLUP is available on this site. For an additional service fee also individual support is available for any issues related to setting up a fully operational genetic evaluation.

Features

  • Fast
  • Accessible for relatively inexperienced users
  • Suits all diploid species
  • Handles large populations
  • User friendly interface
  • Meaningful default settings
  • MiXBLUP does not require other software to be installed
  • Full functionality available on Linux platforms
  • Full functionality of default solver available on Windows platforms
  • Includes professional support

Possibilities

  • Data and pedigree may contain numerical as well as alphanumerical data
  • All common formats of genomic information are supported
  • Large datasets
  • Large number of traits
  • Large number of fixed and random effects
  • Individuals with unknown parents can be grouped into a single base population, or in multiple either related or unrelated base populations
  • Indirect genetic effects can be fitted: e.g. maternal or social genetic effects
  • Random regression models
  • Social interaction models
  • Trait-specific models
  • Old solutions can be used as starting values or prior information to accelerate genetic evaluations
  • Multiple genetic and non-genetic random effects with correlated level effects
  • Full support for multi-trait genome-wide association study (GWAS) from the full data
  • User-friendly interface to do a range of validation studies