Associations among growth, scrotal circumference, and visual score of beef cattle in performance tests on pasture or in feedlots

Raidan, Fernanda Santos Silva; Tineo, Juan Salvador Andrade; Moraes, Mariana Mamedes de; Escarce, Thiago Campos; Araújo, Andresa Eva Melo de; Gomes, Muller Marques de Carvalho; Ventura, Henrique Torres; Toral, Fábio Luiz Buranelo

doi:10.1590/s1806-92902017000400006

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Both the most-positive and the most-negative relationships were observed with calving phenotypes (ejaculate volume and weight of calves, r = 0.0787 ± 0.0003; ejaculate volume and share of normal births, r = −0.0681 ± 0.0003). Other studies found that testis size (e.g., scrotal circumference, length, volume) is genetically correlated with calving interval, ADG, and daughter pregnancy rates (Toelle and Robinson 1985;Meyer et al, 1991;Raidan et al, 2017). However, testis measurements were not available for the BSW bulls considered in our study.…”

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confidence: 79%

Bull fertility and semen quality are not correlated with dairy and production traits in Brown Swiss cattle

et al. 2022

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Undisturbed reproduction is key for successful breeding of beef and dairy cattle. Improving reproductive ability can be difficult because of antagonistic relationships with other economically relevant traits. In cattle, thorough investigation of female fertility revealed unfavorable genetic correlations with various production phenotypes. However, the correlation between male reproductive ability and production traits remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated the genetic relationships among and between male fertility characteristics and economically relevant traits in a population of Brown Swiss cattle. We performed GWAS with imputed genotypes at nearly 12 million sequence variants for semen quality (sperm head and tail anomalies, motility, concentration, and volume), male fertility, and 57 production phenotypes. Allele substitution effects were then correlated on a trait-by-trait basis to estimate genetic correlations. Correlations between male reproductive characteristics and traits of economic value were small and ranged from −0.0681 to 0.0787. Among the semen quality parameters, sperm motility was negatively correlated with anomalies (head: r = −0.7083 ± 0.0002; tail: r = −0.7739 ± 0.0002) and volume (r = −0.1266 ± 0.0003), whereas volume was negatively correlated with concentration (r = −0.3503 ± 0.0002). Sire nonreturn rate was negatively correlated with sperm anomalies (head: r = −0.1640 ± 0.0002; tail: r = −0.1580 ± 0.0002) and positively correlated with motility (r = 0.1598 ± 0.0002). A meta-analysis of male reproductive traits identified 2 quantitative trait loci: a previously described region on chromosome 6 showed pleiotropic effects and a novel region on chromosome 11 was associated with sperm head anomalies. In conclusion, our results suggest that selection for economically important dairy and production phenotypes has little impact on semen quality and fertility of Brown Swiss bulls.

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confidence: 79%

Bull fertility and semen quality are not correlated with dairy and production traits in Brown Swiss cattle

et al. 2022

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“…Torres-Júnior and Henry (2005) stated that SC presents favorable genetic correlation with body weight in Guzera animals. Positive genetic correlations among SC, weights, and weight gains at different ages have been described in different studies (Frizzas et al, 2009;Boligon et al, 2010b;Raidan et al, 2017), indicating that these traits are determined, in large proportion, by the action of the same additive genes. The selection for higher scrotal circumferences would lead to increased performance traits.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Genetic parameters, genetic trends, and principal component analysis for productive and reproductive traits of Guzera beef cattle

et al. 2019

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The objectives of this study were to estimate genetic parameters and genetic trends and perform principal component analysis for the following traits: body weight adjusted at 210 days of age (W210), one year (W365), and yearling or 450 days of age (W450); weight gain from birth to weaning or 210 days of age (WGBW), from weaning to 365 days of age (WGW365), and from one year to yearling (WGY); and scrotal circumference adjusted at 365 (SC365) and 450 (SC450) days of age of Guzera beef cattle. Variance components were estimated under a two-trait animal model using the restricted maximum likelihood method. The fixed effects included in the model were birth season, contemporary group, and covariable age of dam at calving as linear and quadratic effects. Heritability estimates ranged from 0.10 (WGY) to 0.41 (W450 and SC450). The studied traits could be used as selection criteria because of their sufficient additive genetic variability to respond to the selection process. However, lower selection efficiency is expected for WGBW and WGY. Genetic trends studied were significant for all traits, except WGY. The W365 and W450 traits belonged to the "Genetic Merit Total" index and responded to selection with favorable genetic gain per year. The traits that were not included in the selection index showed favorable positive genetic correlations attributed to the indirect selection processes. The principal component analysis identified two groups of traits. The first group related to body weight and weight gain and the second related to the scrotal circumference, indicating that selection could be applied to one group of traits within each observed group. The genetic gains were attributed in the same direction for the other traits belonging to the groups. Thus, we recommend selecting animals for W365 based on first group, and SC365 based on second.

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“…Discovering how to improve male fertility traits not only has the potential to increase the conception rate but also has the capacity to improve other traits. For example, research shows that selection for increased scrotal circumference (SC) size decreased the calving interval ( Meyer et al, 1991 ), improved daughter pregnancy rates ( Toelle and Robison, 1985 ; Van Melis et al, 2010 ), and increased average daily gain ( Raidan et al, 2016 ). Although it is arguable whether or not SC is an indication of female fertility due to some conflicting results in the literature ( Evans et al, 1999 ; Martínez-Velázquez et al, 2003 ), it is currently the only male fertility-related phenotype collected and utilized for genetic evaluation.…”

Section: Importance Of Male Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Selection for bull fertility: a review

Butler

Bormann

Weaber

et al. 2019

Translational Animal Science

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Fertility is a critically important factor in cattle production because it directly relates to the ability to produce the offspring necessary to offset costs in production systems. Female fertility has received much attention and has been enhanced through assisted reproductive technologies, as well as genetic selection; however, improving bull fertility has been largely ignored. Improvements in bull reproductive performance are necessary to optimize the efficiency of cattle production. Selection and management to improve bull fertility not only have the potential to increase conception rates but also have the capacity to improve other economically relevant production traits. Bull fertility has reportedly been genetically correlated with traits such as average daily gain, heifer pregnancy, and calving interval. Published studies show that bull fertility traits are low to moderately heritable, indicating that improvements in bull fertility can be realized through selection. Although female fertility has continued to progress according to increasing conception rates, the reported correlation between male and female fertility is low, indicating that male fertility cannot be improved by selection for female fertility. Correlations between several bull fertility traits, such as concentration, number of spermatozoa, motility, and number of spermatozoa abnormalities, vary among studies. Using male fertility traits in selection indices would provide producers with more advanced selection tools. The objective of this review was to discuss current beef bull fertility measurements and to discuss the future of genetic evaluation of beef bull fertility and potential genetic improvement strategies.

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Associations among growth, scrotal circumference, and visual score of beef cattle in performance tests on pasture or in feedlots

Cited by 9 publications

References 27 publications

Bull fertility and semen quality are not correlated with dairy and production traits in Brown Swiss cattle

Bull fertility and semen quality are not correlated with dairy and production traits in Brown Swiss cattle

Genetic parameters, genetic trends, and principal component analysis for productive and reproductive traits of Guzera beef cattle

Selection for bull fertility: a review

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