Genetic relationships between body condition score and reproduction traits in Canadian Holstein and Ayrshire first-parity cows

Bastin, Catherine; Loker, S.; Gengler, Nicolas; Sewalem, A.; Miglior, F.

doi:10.3168/jds.2009-2720

Cited by 44 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Using a threshold model, the heritability of CR was estimated as 0.043 for firstparity Holstein cows in New York State. Jamrozik et al (2005), Tsuruta et al (2009) and Bastin et al (2010) estimated that the heritabilities of NR to 56 days at first lactation in Canadian Holstein cows were 0.020 and 0.026, respectively. Liu et al (2008) also reported that the heritabilities of NR to 56 days, as estimated from 25.5 million insemination records, were 0.012 for heifers and 0.015 for dairy cows in Germany, Austria and Luxembourg.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between conception rate in Holstein heifers and cows and milk yield at various stages of lactation

Hagiya

Terawaki

Yamazaki

et al. 2013

Animal

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We investigated the relationships between conception rates (CRs) at first service in Japanese Holstein heifers (i.e. animals that had not yet had their first calf) and cows and their test-day (TD) milk yields. Data included records of artificial insemination (AI) for heifers and cows that had calved for the first time between 2000 and 2008 and their TD milk yields at 6 through 305 days in milk (DIM) from first through third lactations. CR was defined as a binary trait for which first AI was a failure or success. A threshold-linear animal model was applied to estimate genetic correlations between CRs of heifers or cows and TD milk yield at various lactation stages. Two-trait genetic analyses were performed for every combination of CR and TD milk yield by using the Bayesian method with Gibbs sampling. The posterior means of the heritabilities of CR were 0.031 for heifers, 0.034 for first-lactation cows and 0.028 for second-lactation cows. Heritabilities for TD milk yield increased from 0.324 to 0.433 with increasing DIM but decreased slightly after 210 DIM during first lactation. These heritabilities from the second and third lactations were higher during late stages of lactation than during early stages. Posterior means of the genetic correlations between heifer CR and all TD yields were positive (range, 0.082 to 0.287), but those between CR of cows and milk yields during first or second lactation were negative (range, 20.121 to 20.250). Therefore, during every stage of lactation, selection in the direction of increasing milk yield may reduce CR in cows. The genetic relationships between CR and lactation curve shape were quite weak, because the genetic correlations between CR and TD milk yield were constant during the lactation period.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between conception rate in Holstein heifers and cows and milk yield at various stages of lactation

Hagiya

Terawaki

Yamazaki

et al. 2013

Animal

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“…Genetic correlations between BCS and fertility are unfavourable (e.g. Pryce et al, 2001;Berry et al, 2003;Dechow et al, 2004;Bastin et al, 2010). BCS is generally visually or manually assessed by trained operators and only gives an approximate indication of a cow's (subcutaneous) energy reserves (Roche et al, 2009).…”

Section: Impact Of Selecting For Rfi On Other Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genomic selection for feed efficiency in dairy cattle

Pryce

Wales

Haas

et al. 2014

Animal

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Feed is a major component of variable costs associated with dairy systems and is therefore an important consideration for breeding objectives. As a result, measures of feed efficiency are becoming popular traits for genetic analyses. Already, several countries account for feed efficiency in their breeding objectives by approximating the amount of energy required for milk production, maintenance, etc. However, variation in actual feed intake is currently not captured in dairy selection objectives, although this could be possible by evaluating traits such as residual feed intake (RFI), defined as the difference between actual and predicted feed (or energy) intake. As feed intake is expensive to accurately measure on large numbers of cows, phenotypes derived from it are obvious candidates for genomic selection provided that: (1) the trait is heritable; (2) the reliability of genomic predictions are acceptable to those using the breeding values; and (3) if breeding values are estimated for heifers, rather than cows then the heifer and cow traits need to be correlated. The accuracy of genomic prediction of dry matter intake (DMI) and RFI has been estimated to be around 0.4 in beef and dairy cattle studies. There are opportunities to increase the accuracy of prediction, for example, pooling data from three research herds (in Australia and Europe) has been shown to increase the accuracy of genomic prediction of DMI from 0.33 within country to 0.35 using a three-country reference population. Before including RFI as a selection objective, genetic correlations with other traits need to be estimated. Weak unfavourable genetic correlations between RFI and fertility have been published. This could be because RFI is mathematically similar to the calculation of energy balance and failure to account for mobilisation of body reserves correctly may result in selection for a trait that is similar to selecting for reduced (or negative) energy balance. So, if RFI is to become a selection objective, then including it in an overall multi-trait selection index where the breeding objective is net profit is sensible, as this would allow genetic correlations with other traits to be properly accounted for. If genetic parameters are accurately estimated then RFI is a logical breeding objective. If there is uncertainty in these, then DMI may be preferable.

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“…Likewise, Mao et al (2004) found that heritability was greatest for BCS in early to midlactation in parity 1 and 2, whereas heritability was greatest later in lactation for parity 3. Bastin et al (2010) worked with the same full data set (before edits) as the current study and found a similar shape for the heritability curve for first-parity Canadian Holsteins, though with generally lower daily heritabilities. Berry et al (2003b) studied multiparous cows, and also modeled BCS using a random regression animal model.…”

Section: Short Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short communication: Estimates of genetic parameters of body condition score in the first 3 lactations using a random regression animal model

Loker

Bastin

Miglior

et al. 2011

Journal of Dairy Science

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The objective of this research was to estimate the genetic parameters of body condition score (BCS) in the first 3 lactations in Canadian Holstein dairy cattle using a multiple-lactation random regression animal model. Field staff from Valacta milk recording agency (Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, Canada) collected BCS from Québec herds several times throughout each lactation. Approximately 32,000, 20,000, and 11,000 first-, second-, and third-parity BCS were analyzed, respectively, from a total of 75 herds. Body condition score was a moderately heritable trait over the lactation for parity 1, 2, and 3, with average daily heritabilities of 0.22, 0.26, and 0.30, respectively. Daily heritability ranged between 0.14 and 0.26, 0.19 and 0.28, and 0.24 and 0.33 for parity 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Genetic variance of BCS increased with days in milk within lactations. The low genetic variance in early lactation suggests that the evolution of the ability to mobilize tissue reserves in early lactation provided cattle with a major advantage, and is, therefore, somewhat conserved. The increasing genetic variance suggests that more genetic differences were related to how well cows recovered from the negative energy balance state. More specifically, increasing genetic variation as lactation progressed could be a reflection of genetic differences in the ability of cows to efficiently control the rate of mobilization of tissue reserves, which would not be crucial in early lactation. The shape of BCS curves was similar across parities. From first to third parity, differences included the progressively deeper nadir and faster rate of recovery of condition. Daily genetic correlations between parities were calculated from 5 to 305 DIM, and were summed and divided by 301 to obtain average daily genetic correlations. The average daily genetic correlations were 0.84 between parity 1 and 2, 0.83 between parity 1 and 3, and 0.86 between parity 2 and 3. Although not 1, these genetic correlations are still strong, so much of the variation observed in BCS was controlled by the same genes for each of the first 3 lactations. If a genetic evaluation for BCS is developed, regular collection of first-lactation BCS records should be sufficient for genetic evaluation.

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Genetic relationships between body condition score and reproduction traits in Canadian Holstein and Ayrshire first-parity cows

Cited by 44 publications

References 24 publications

Relationships between conception rate in Holstein heifers and cows and milk yield at various stages of lactation

Relationships between conception rate in Holstein heifers and cows and milk yield at various stages of lactation

Genomic selection for feed efficiency in dairy cattle

Short communication: Estimates of genetic parameters of body condition score in the first 3 lactations using a random regression animal model

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