The genetic relationship between reproduction traits and milk urea concentration
Journal Title: Animal Science Papers and Reports - Year 2015, Vol 33, Issue 3
Abstract
The aim of this research was to investigate the genetic relationship between reproduction traits and milk urea concentration (MU) during the first lactation of Polish Holstein-Friesian cows. The following reproduction traits were considered: interval from calving to first insemination, interval from first to last insemination, interval from calving to conception, number of inseminations to conception, first insemination conception rate and first insemination non-return rate to the 56th day. Data consisted of more than 1.2 million test-day records from 148,700 primiparous cows, for which fertility traits were available. Daily genetic correlations between MU and fertility traits were estimated with a random regression animal model. The Bayesian Gibbs sampling method was used to estimate the (co)variance components. Heritability of reproduction traits was low and ranged between 0.01 and 0.06. Heritability for MU was higher and relatively constant throughout the lactation (0.16-0.19). The genetic correlation between reproduction traits and MU in midlactation was close to zero, which suggests that MU measured close to the first insemination is of limited use in the indirect selection for fertility. Moderate genetic correlations between MU and reproduction traits, which were observed in the first two months of lactation, are sufficient for genetic improvement of fertility. However, better fertility was genetically related with higher MU, and an increase of MU concentration is undesirable.
Authors and Affiliations
Katarzyna Rzewuska, Tomasz Strabel
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP75140
- DOI -
- Views 115
- Downloads 0
Analysis of genetic structure of the Beagle population in the area of Cracow Branch of the Polish Kennel Club
Inbreeding and relationship are presented in the Beagle dog population as well as the contribution of founders and ancestors to the active population of Beagles recorded in the herdbook of the Cracow Branch of the Polish...
Effect of sex, muscle, and processing temperature on heme iron content in lamb meat
The objectives of this study were to assess the effect of sex and a muscle type on heme iron content in meat of Uhruska lambs, and to determine the effect of different processing temperatures (60, 70, 80, and 90°C) on co...
Effect of forage legumes on feed intake, milk production and milk quality – a review
Literature data from experiments with lactating dairy cows offered silage-based diets was reviewed to evaluate the effects of the grassland legume species Trifolium repens (WC, white clover), Trifolium pratense (RC, red...
Genotype-environment interaction between Chile and North America and between Chilean herd environmental categories for milk yield traits in Black and White cattle
In order to evaluate the expression of sire genetic evaluations obtained in North America for Chilean Black and White Cattle, genetic correlations were estimated for milk (MY), fat (FY) and protein (PY) yields, and for f...
Effect of hCG and intravaginal application of estradiol and prostaglandin E2 on pregnancy rate and litter size in gilts and sows
Three separate experiments were performed on fifty pregnant gilts (Experiment 1 and 2) and forty primiparous sows (Experiment 3) to examine the effect of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) administration on day 12 (Exper...