Pedigree Viewer is a widely recognized bioinformatic software tool designed by Brian Kinghorn to map, analyze, and manipulate large and complex genetic pedigree structures. It bridges the gap between text-based pedigree data and human-interpretable visuals, allowing geneticists, livestock breeders, and researchers to quickly spot trends, track inheritance paths, and discover structural errors. Core Capabilities & Features
Massive Scaling: The tool can comfortably process and display thousands of animals or individuals on a single screen simultaneously.
Dynamic Information Highlighting: Because massive trees can overlap, users can hover their cursor over an individual to instantly highlight their data and relationships.
Advanced Pedigree Pruning: Users can isolate specific lineages by selecting an individual to automatically strip away uninformative background data, narrowing the graph to relatives of a chosen degree.
Trait and Merit Shading: Numerical traits or Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) can be assigned bright gradient shading, visually spotlighting high-merit or target individuals.
Genetic Calculations: The program natively calculates critical statistical values, including individual inbreeding coefficients and BLUP (Best Linear Unbiased Prediction) breeding metrics.
Error Detection: It scans input datasets to find logical errors, such as circular parentage or impossible generational timelines. How Data is Handled
Pedigree Viewer reads simple, standardized text files containing data points like Individual ID, Sire (Father) ID, and Dam (Mother) ID. Versions of the software (such as version 5.5c) also offer compatibility with the human genetic GEDCOM file format, making it useful across both animal husbandry and human medical genealogy. Technical Environment
Platform Compatibility: The software runs natively on Microsoft Windows. It is not supported on macOS or Linux.
Architecture: Modern updates (versions 6.0 and above) utilize a hybrid build of VB.NET and Fortran to handle intense computational data processing efficiently.
To download the application or read the user documentation, you can visit the official Pedigree Viewer Portal.
Are you planning to use Pedigree Viewer for livestock breeding, academic genetic research, or human genealogy? Let me know, and I can guide you on formatting your data files or suggest similar modern web tools if you use a Mac or Linux system. Brian Kinghorn Pedigree Viewer – Brian Kinghorn
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