Genomic and conventional breeding values for clinical mastitis

Conventional and genomic breeding values for clinical mastitis were estimated,based on a dataset of 15,905 cows (36,250 lactations) from 10 farms, calving years from 1996 to 2014. The number of genotyped bulls was 2647 and 799 of them had offspring among the surveyed cows. Pedigree consisted of 64,306 individuals. Analyzed trait was defined as the number of incidence of clinical mastitis per standard lactation. Parity was limited from 1 to 7. The highest proportion of mastitis disease was observed in early lactation and decreased with month of lactation, while there was an upswing of diseases with parity. Genetic trend for cows showed a deteriorating tendency for clinical mastitis. From 1992 to 2010 there was a rise in the relative values of breeding values from 88% to 112% (worsening). Relative breeding values of these bulls were on average above 100%. The correlations between classical genomic breeding values and the values were high: 93% for the whole sample, 81% to 48 young genomic bulls without daughters born in years 2011 and 2012

Analysis of foot and claw diseases/disorders in Czech Holstein cows

Received: 2018-05-07 | Accepted: 2018-05-14 | Available online: 2018-11-26https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2018.21.04.194-196Foot and claw diseases/disorders from 24 545 lactations of 10 340 Holstein cows were recorded on 7 farms in the Czech Republic from 1999 to 2018. There were defined a three groups of foot and claw disorders/diseases: diseases of skin (SD), which cover digital, interdigital dermatitis and interdigital phlegmon; then disorders of the claw horn (CH) including ulcers, white line disease, horn fissures, together with double sole and  overall claw diseases (OCD) ingluding all the recorded disorders. The OCD ratio observed during 1th and 305th days of lactation was  52.56% of all evaluated lactations. The observed ratio of SD and CH  were 28.61% and 27.15%, respectively. A foot and claw disorders were defined as 0/1 occurrence per lactation, for the purposes of analyses,. Genetic parameters were estimated using by linear animal models for evaluated traits. Models  included the random additive genetic effect of animal (A), the permanent environmental effect of cow (PE), fixed effects of parity, farm, year and season of calving, and age at calving as discreet variables in classes. The estimated heritability were 13.84%, 12.64% and 9.83%, 8.73% and 9.97%, for OCD, CH, SD, ulcers (U) and for dermatitis digitalis and interdigitalis (DD), respectively. Genetic correlation was 17.66% between SD and CH, whereas traits SD and DD equal high genetic similarity (98.4%). Also correlation between CH and U traits was high (92.62%). The presented results indicate to possibility of selection against foot and claw disorders/diseases for Czech Holstein population. The work was supported by the project QJ1510144 and the institutional support MZE-RO0718 of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic.Keywords: cattle, foot and claw disorders, genetic parameters, health traits, uddeReferencesBuch, L. H., A. C. Sørensen, J. Lassen, P. Berg, J. A. Eriksson, J. H. Jakobsen,  M. K. Sørensen (2011) Hygiene-related and feed-related hoof diseases show different patterns of genetic correlations to clinical mastitis and female fertility. J. Dairy Sci., 94, 1540-1551.Chapinal, N., A. Koeck, A. Sewalem, D. F. Kelton, S. Mason, G. Cramer,F. Miglior (2013) Genetic parameters for hoof lesions and their relationship with feet and leg traits in Canadian Holstein cows. J. Dairy Sci., 96, 2596-2604.Egger-Danner, C., O.K. Hansen, K. Stock, J.E. Pryce, J. Cole, N. Gengler, B. Heringstad (2013) Challenges and benefits of health data recording in the context of food chain quality, management and breeding. ICAR Technical Series.Groeneveld, E., M. Kovač, and N. Mielenz (2008) VCE User’s Guide and Reference Manual, Version 6.0. Krpálková, L., M. Štípková & M. Krejčová, 2016. Vliv zdraví paznehtů a úrovně reprodukce na výkonnost a zisk stáda dojnic. Náš chov, 76 (9), 58-63.Krupová, Z., Krupa, E., Michaličková, M., Wolfová, M., Kasarda, R. (2016) Economic values for health and feed efficiency traits of dual-purpose cattle in marginal areas. Journal of Dairy Science, ,. 99,  s. 644-656.Madsen, P. , J. Jensen. 2010. DMU – a package for analysing multivariate mixed models. Version 6, release 5.0., Aarhus University, Foulum, Denmark.Pérez-Cabal, M. A. ,N. Charfeddine, N. (2015) Models for genetic evaluations of claw health traits in Spanish dairy cattle.   J. Dairy Sci., 98 (11), 8186-8194.Sogstad, A. M., T. Fjeldaas, O. Østerås,  K. P. Forshell. (2005) Prevalence of claw lesions in Norwegian dairy cattle housed in tie stalls and free stalls. Prev. Vet. Med., 70, 191-209.van der Spek, D., J.A. van Arendonk, A.A. Vallée, H. Bovenhuis (2013) Genetic parameters for claw disorders and the effect of preselecting cows for trimming. J Dairy Sci., 96 (9), 6070-6078.van der Waaij, E. H., M. Holzhauer, E. Ellen, C. Kamphuis, G.de Jong. (2005) Genetic parameters for claw disorders in Dutch dairy cattle and correlations with conformation traits. J. Dairy Sci., 88, 3672-3678