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Given the significance of their role in human diets, livestock have been and continue to be selected for greater productivity. Improved performance has resulted from the combined effects of progress in animal raising conditions (feeding, herd management and so on) and the effectiveness of genetic evaluation programs. The structure of current genetic evaluation programs is based largely on empiricism and does not take the identity and role of specific genes into consideration. The genetic potential of livestock is therefore a presumption based on observed performance. In fact, the actual DNA sequences responsible for superior performance are seldom known. However, this information is becoming available thanks to technological advances in molecular genetics. The decrypting of genomes has given birth to the science known as genomics. Besides DNA markers, genomics offer the possibility of developing another type of marker, namely markers of expression, which may be used to maximize the effect of the combination of production environment and genetic background. Much hope is now pinned on the potential of applied genomics to improve livestock performance by refining or complementing current conventional selection efforts.