Fertility traits in spring-calving Aberdeen Angus cattle. 1. Model development and genetic parameters1

Urioste, J. I.; Misztal, I.; Bertrand, J. K.

doi:10.2527/jas.2006-549

Cited by 30 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Most previous studies on the genetics of reproductive performance in beef cattle are limited in size (Evans et al, 1999;Phocas and Sapa, 2004;Bormann et al, 2006;Urioste et al, 2007) and therefore have large associated SE of estimated parameters. The objective of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for reproductive traits, especially pertinent to seasonal calving beef production systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the low heritability commonly reported for most measures of reproductive performance in beef (Koots et al, 1994;Martínez-Velázquez et al, 2003;Donoghue et al, 2004) and dairy (Pryce and Veerkamp, 2001;Berry et al, 2013) cattle, the genetic variation present is sufficiently large enough (Gutiérrez et al, 2002;Berry et al, 2003;Goyache et al, 2005) to ensure breeding programs for reproductive performance are successful. Although many studies have attempted to quantify the proportion of phenotypic differences in reproductive performance among beef animals due to additive genetic effects, these studies have generally been limited in the number of animals or herds included in the analysis (Evans et al, 1999;Phocas and Sapa, 2004;Urioste et al, 2007). Furthermore, few (Gregory et al, 1995;Roughsedge et al, 2005;Gutiér-rez et al, 2007) evaluated the impact on reproduction caused by genetic selection on other economically important traits; these studies were generally limited in size and therefore lack precision in the estimates of especially the genetic correlations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Genetics of reproductive performance in seasonal calving beef cows and its association with performance traits

Berry

Evans²

2014

Journal of Animal Science

101

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Due primarily to a lack of phenotypic data, little research has been undertaken on the genetics of reproductive performance in beef cattle. The objective of this study was to quantify, using data from the Irish national cattle herd, the contribution of additive genetics to phenotypic differences in reproductive performance in beef cattle and to investigate whether routinely available early predictors of genetic merit for reproductive performance exist. Up to 218,718 parity records from 156,506 animals were used to estimate variance components for a range of reproductive traits using repeatability animal linear mixed models. Covariances with performance traits were estimated using bivariate sire linear mixed models. The reproductive traits were age at first calving, calving in the first 42 d of the calving seasons (defined separately in heifers and cows), calving interval between consecutive calving events, and survival to the next lactation. Performance traits included calving dystocia, linear type traits describing the skeletal, muscular, and functional characteristics of an animal, live weight and price, carcass traits, and producer subjectively scored traits of weanling quality and docility. Heritability for age at first calving was 0.31 while the heritability of the remaining reproductive traits ranged from 0.01 to 0.06; repeatability estimates varied from 0.02 to 0.06. Increased muscularity, measured either by trained assessors or producers on live animals, or by mechanical grading machines on slaughtered animals (i.e., carcass conformation), was genetically correlated with reduced reproductive performance for some of the reproductive variables assessed. This is one of the largest studies undertaken on the genetics of reproduction in beef herds and clearly shows that genetic selection for improved reproductive performance in beef herds is feasible. However, breeding goals that select for muscularity and live weight or growth rate should be cognizant of indirect response to selection that may cause any deterioration in reproductive performance.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetics of reproductive performance in seasonal calving beef cows and its association with performance traits

Berry

Evans²

2014

Journal of Animal Science

101

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“…When analyzing DO in Spanish Holsteins, González-Recio et al (2006) found that CLM provided greater variances than LM (without penalty), but also provided greater heritability. Urioste et al (2007a) analyzed days to calving in beef cattle and showed that heritabilities estimated using LM and CLM were similar, whereas lower heritability was estimated using TLM by assigning censored records as missing. In the present study, the Weibull proportional hazard model produced an unconvincingly high heritability estimate, indicating that the model did not fit the data well.…”

Section: Variance Components and Heritabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, frailty survival models have been applied to analyze fertility traits (Schneider et al, 2005(Schneider et al, , 2006. Another alternative is to use a threshold-linear model, which includes a binary trait indicating censoring status of the observations, and a continuous fertility trait (Donoghue et al, 2004c;Urioste et al, 2007a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic analysis of days from calving to first insemination and days open in Danish Holsteins using different models and censoring scenarios

Hou

Madsen

Labouriau

et al. 2009

Journal of Dairy Science

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The objectives of this study were to estimate genetic parameters and evaluate models for genetic evaluation of days from calving to first insemination (ICF) and days open (DO). Data including 509,512 first-parity records of Danish Holstein cows were analyzed using 5 alternative sire models that dealt with censored records in different ways: 1) a conventional linear model (LM) in which a penalty of 21 d was added to censored records; 2) a bivariate threshold-linear model (TLM), which included a threshold model for censoring status (0, 1) of the observations, and a linear model for ICF or DO without any penalty on censored records; 3) a rightcensored linear model (CLM); 4) a Weibull proportional hazard model (SMW); and 5) a Cox proportional hazard model (SMC) constructed with piecewise constant baseline hazard function. The variance components for ICF and DO estimated from LM and TLM were similar, whereas CLM gave higher estimates of both additive genetic and residual components. Estimates of heritability from models LM, TLM, and CLM were very similar (0.102 to 0.108 for ICF, and 0.066 to 0.069 for DO). Heritabilities estimated using model SMW were 0.213 for ICF and 0.121 for DO in logarithmic scale. Using SMC, the estimates of heritability, defined as the log-hazard proportional factor for ICF and DO, were 0.013 and 0.009, respectively. Correlations between predicted transmitting ability from different models for sires with records from at least 20 daughters were far from unity, indicating that different models could lead to different rankings. The largest reranking was found between SMW and SMC, whereas negligible reranking was found among LM, TLM, and CLM. The 5 models were evaluated by comparing correlations between predicted transmitting ability from different data sets (the whole data set and 2 subsets, each containing half of the whole data set), for sires with records from at least 20 daughters, and χ 2 statistics based on predicted and observed daughter frequencies using a cross validation. The model comparisons showed that SMC had the best performance in predicting breeding values of the 2 traits. No significant difference was found among models LM, TLM, and CLM. The SMW model had a relatively poor performance, probably because the data are far from a Weibull distribution. The results from the present study suggest that SMC could be a good alternative for predicting breeding values of ICF and DO in the Danish Holstein population.

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“…Submission rate is also useful in seasonal calving/breeding production systems to describe whether or not an animal was submitted for service in a given period from the initiation of the herd breeding season . Calving rate is sometimes used in beef genetic evaluations (Johnston and Bunter, 1996;Urioste et al, 2007).…”

Section: Reproductive Phenotypes Used In Animal Breedingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetics and genomics of reproductive performance in dairy and beef cattle

Berry

Wall

Pryce

2014

Animal

321

235

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Excellent reproductive performance in both males and females is fundamental to profitable dairy and beef production systems. In this review we undertook a meta-analysis of genetic parameters for female reproductive performance across 55 dairy studies or populations and 12 beef studies or populations as well as across 28 different studies or populations for male reproductive performance. A plethora of reproductive phenotypes exist in dairy and beef cattle and a meta-analysis of the literature suggests that most of the female reproductive traits in dairy and beef cattle tend to be lowly heritable (0.02 to 0.04). Reproductive-related phenotypes in male animals (e.g. semen quality) tend to be more heritable than female reproductive phenotypes with mean heritability estimates of between 0.05 and 0.22 for semenrelated traits with the exception of scrotal circumference (0.42) and field non-return rate (0.001). The low heritability of reproductive traits, in females in particular, does not however imply that genetic selection cannot alter phenotypic performance as evidenced by the decline until recently in dairy cow reproductive performance attributable in part to aggressive selection for increased milk production. Moreover, the antagonistic genetic correlations among reproductive traits and both milk (dairy cattle) and meat (beef cattle) yield is not unity thereby implying that simultaneous genetic selection for both increased (milk and meat) yield and reproductive performance is indeed possible. The required emphasis on reproductive traits within a breeding goal to halt deterioration will vary based on the underlying assumptions and is discussed using examples for Ireland, the United Kingdom and Australia as well as quantifying the impact on genetic gain for milk production. Advancements in genomic technologies can aid in increasing the accuracy of selection for especially reproductive traits and thus genetic gain. Elucidation of the underlying genomic mechanisms for reproduction could also aid in resolving genetic antagonisms. Past breeding programmes have contributed to the deterioration in reproductive performance of dairy and beef cattle. The tools now exist, however, to reverse the genetic trends in reproductive performance underlying the observed phenotypic trends.

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Fertility traits in spring-calving Aberdeen Angus cattle. 1. Model development and genetic parameters1

Cited by 30 publications

References 19 publications

Genetics of reproductive performance in seasonal calving beef cows and its association with performance traits

Genetics of reproductive performance in seasonal calving beef cows and its association with performance traits

Genetic analysis of days from calving to first insemination and days open in Danish Holsteins using different models and censoring scenarios

Genetics and genomics of reproductive performance in dairy and beef cattle

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