Genetic parameters for body condition score, locomotion, angularity, and production traits in Italian Holstein cattle

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to estimate genetic parameters for body condition score (BCS) and locomotion (LOC), and to assess their relationships with angularity (ANG), milk yield, fat and protein content, and fat to protein content ratio (F:P) in the Italian Holstein Friesian breed. The Italian Holstein Friesian Cattle Breeders Association collects type trait data once on all registered first lactation cows. Body condition score and LOC were introduced in the conformation scoring system in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Variance (and covariance) components among traits were estimated with a Bayesian approach via a Gibbs sampling algorithm and an animal model. Heritability estimates were 0.114 and 0.049 for BCS and LOC, respectively. The genetic correlation between BCS and LOC was weak (-0.084) and not different from zero; therefore, the traits seem to be genetically independent, but further investigation on possible departures from linearity of this relationship is needed. Angularity was strongly negatively correlated with BCS (-0.612), and strongly positively correlated with LOC (0.650). The genetic relationship of milk yield with BCS was moderately negative (-0.386), and was moderately positive (0.238) with LOC. These results indicate that high-producing cows tend to be thinner and tend to have better locomotion than low-producing cows. The genetic correlation of BCS with fat content (0.094) and F:P (-0.014) was very weak and not different from zero, and with protein content (0.173) was weak but different from zero. Locomotion was weakly correlated with fat content (0.071), protein content (0.028), and F:P (0.074), and correlations were not different from zero. Phenotypic correlations were generally weaker than their genetic counterparts, ranging from -0.241 (BCS with ANG) to 0.245 (LOC with ANG). Before including BCS and LOC in the selection index of the Italian Holstein breed, the correlations with other traits currently used to improve type and functionality of animals need to be investigated.

Genetic parameters for milk components including lactose from test day records in the New Zealand dairy herd

“…The heritabilities for LP (0.25 ± 0.04) and PP (0.32 ± 0.05) were much less than that expected from previous studies, but the estimate obtained for FY (0.35 ± 0.05) was similar (Welper & Freeman 1992;Sneddon et al 2012). Heritabilities were similar to Battagin et al (2013). Repeatabilities were high for all traits, which indicates consistency within cow throughout the year.…”

“…The low heritability estimates are unlikely to be a dataset size issue because the number of records used for this study was intermediate compared with those used in previous studies. This study, however, used only one season of first lactation animals, similar to Johnson et al (2000), compared with most other studies, which used either multiparous animals (Sneddon et al 2012) (Welper & Freeman 1992;Vos & Groen 1998;Johnson et al 2000;Pryce & Harris 2006;Stoop et al 2008;Battagin et al 2013). The use of primiparous animals allowed for relatively large cohort groups compared with what would have been achieved with multiparous animals.…”

“…Many studies have reported the estimation of genetic parameters for daily milk yields (MY), fat yield (FY), protein yield (PY), percentages of fat (FP) and protein (PP), and somatic cell score (SCS) (Roman et al 1999Johnson et al 2000;Pryce & Harris 2006;Miglior et al 2007;Battagin et al 2013). There is, however, a scarcity of estimations of genetic parameters for lactose yield (LY), lactose percentage (LP) and the ratios between milk components.…”

Genetic parameters between feed-intake-related traits and conformation in 2 separate dairy populations—the Netherlands and United States

“…Chest width was also highly positively correlated with BW. Finally, BW was negatively correlated with ANG; this was expected due to the estimated negative genetic correlation between ANG and BCS ranging between −0.38 to −0.65 (Bastin and Gengler, 2013;Battagin et al, 2013). Veerkamp and Brotherstone (1997) demonstrated how the correlations between conformation traits and BW changed depending on if BW was (genetically) adjusted to a common BCS or not.…”

Influence of the Development of Linear Conformation Traits Characterizing the Body State, on the Viability of Cows Ukrainian Brown Dairy Breed

“…Так, у голштинів Швейцарії [20] вгодованість від'ємно корелювала з ознаками ширини грудей (r = -0,39), молочними формами (r = -0,35), якістю вимені (r = -0,42) та виробництвом молока (r = -0,17). За повідомленням асоціації голштинської худоби Італії [18] вгодованість тісно від'ємно корелювала з кутастістю (r = -0,612) та надоєм за лактацію (r = -0,386) засвідчуючи, що високопродуктивні корови мають тенденцію бути худими. Повідомляється за дослідженнями голштинської худоби Чехії [22], що корови, які за лінійною класифікацією були оцінені як худі, виявилися кращими за тривалістю використання.…”