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Farmer-observed health data around calving--Genetic parameters and association with veterinarian diagnoses in Austrian Fleckvieh cows
- Source :
- Journal of dairy science. 98(4)
- Publication Year :
- 2014
-
Abstract
- The objective of this study was to investigate if farmer-observed health data around calving can be used together with veterinarian diagnoses for genetic evaluations. Four diseases are recorded by farmers: retained placenta, downer cow syndrome, mastitis, and lameness. Mean disease frequencies were 4.7, 3.8, and 1.8% for retained placenta, downer cow syndrome, and mastitis, respectively. Lameness had a very low frequency (0.7%) and a preliminary analysis revealed a heritability close to zero for this trait. Therefore, lameness was not considered in the analysis. For genetic analyses, univariate and bivariate linear animal models were fitted. Heritabilities for retained placenta, downer cow syndrome, and mastitis were 0.01, 0.03, and 0.003, respectively. Genetic correlations among the investigated disease traits were low to moderate and not significantly different from zero. Pearson correlations between estimated breeding values for disease traits and other routinely evaluated traits were computed, which revealed mostly favorable relationships to fertility, maternal calving ease, muscling, and longevity. In addition, a moderate favorable association was found between mastitis and somatic cell score. Heritability estimates of farmer-observed health traits were comparable to estimates based on veterinarian diagnoses. Genetic correlations between the investigated diseases based on farmer observations and veterinarian diagnoses were almost 1, with estimates ranging from 0.98 to 0.99. These results suggest that farmer recorded health data could be used together with veterinarian diagnoses for genetic evaluations.
- Subjects :
- Veterinary medicine
Longevity
Ice calving
Cattle Diseases
Disease
Breeding
Genetic correlation
Veterinarians
Retained placenta
Pregnancy
Genetics
medicine
Animals
Lactation
Genetic Predisposition to Disease
Farmers
business.industry
Parturition
food and beverages
Heritability
medicine.disease
Mastitis
Fertility
Lameness
Austria
Trait
Linear Models
Animal Science and Zoology
Cattle
Female
business
Food Science
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15253198
- Volume :
- 98
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of dairy science
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....cbe1e794533cbc7cc1af364698ecc294