Health recording in Canadian Holsteins: Data and genetic parameters

Breeding for health using producer recorded data in Canadian Holsteins

Health traits are of increasing importance to dairy producers. In the Scandinavian countries, direct selection for improved disease resistance has been carried out for more than 30 years (Philipsson and Lindhé, 2003). In these countries, veterinary treatments are recorded, as all treatments involving antibiotics and hormones have to be made primarily by a veterinarian. As veterinarians have ext...

Genetic analysis of return over feed in Canadian Holsteins.

The objective of this study was to investigate genetic merit of return over feed (ROF), which is a herd profit index defined by CanWest Dairy Herd Improvement as a difference between milk income and feed cost. A multiple-trait (MT) model and random regression model (RRM) were used. The traits analyzed in MT were rearing cost and ROF of the first three lactations. In RRM, a cumulative ROF was fi...

Estimation of genetic parameters for somatic cell score in Holsteins.

Genetic parameters of somatic cell scores for Holstein cows were estimated using an animal model and REML for two data sets. Set 1, with 13,017 records from 5278 cows, was used to obtain variance components, heritability, and repeatability for two lactation measures: the simple average and the weighted average of test day data. Set 2, with 14,418 records from 4806 cows, was used to obtain genet...

Genetic parameters and genome wide association study of individual hoof lesions in Canadian Holsteins using different contemporary groups

Genetic parameters for producer-recorded health data in Canadian Holstein cattle.

Health traits are of paramount importance for economic dairy production. Improvement in liability to diseases has been made with better management practices, but genetic aspects of health traits have received less attention. Dairy producers in Canada have been recording eight health traits (mastitis (MAST), lameness (LAME), cystic ovarian disease (COD), left displaced abomasum (LDA), ketosis (K...