The cattle breed Blanco Orejinegro (BON) is an important animal genetic resource in Colombia that needs to be studied to identify its productive benefits for Colombian livestock. The aim of this work was to establish the best linear model that explains the variability for birth weight, weaning weight and yearling weight, and estimate the effect of the serological status for Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD) and Bovine Leukosis (BL) in BON cattle in Colombia. The information on animal weighings belonging to 14 BON cattle herds, was collected and cleansed. Using the least squares method, 12 linear models were evaluated including as fixed effects, factors such as herd, sex, weighing month, birth order, season (rainy or dry), birth year, and contemporary group (formed by the concatenation of the factors herd, sex, and birth year). The weighing age was included as a covariate for weaning and yearling weights. For the selection of a model that best describes each parameter, the criteria for choosing models, such as Akaike information criterion (AIC), Bayesian Information criterion (BIC), coefficient of determination (R2), and the sum of squares of the error (SSE), were considered. The model that included the contemporary group showed the best fit, being also the best to describe the three parameters evaluated, since, of the four criteria considered for its evaluation, AIC and SSE showed the lowest values and the highest R2. With this model, weight predictions with higher precision were able to be performed. Employing indirect ELISA screening tests of blood plasma, the serological status of each animal was estimated for BVD and BL viral infections. The serological status of these two viral infections was included in the best-fit model. There was no significant effect of the serological status on the parameters evaluated, so there are indications that animals that came in contact with the virus were not affected during growth.
Serological controls for diseases of viral origin in animal production systems and the identification of factors associated with infections are decisive elements to establish prevention and control measures. The aim of this study was to establish the serological status for Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD) and Enzootic Bovine Leukemia (EBL) viruses in Blanco Orejinegro (BON) cattle from Colombia, and to identify the factors associated with seropositivity. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a total of 498 animals of all age groups and physiological states of the BON breed were selected, belonging to 14 herds located in 6 states of Colombia, in which a survey with 27 questions was conducted. By means of the chi-square test, possible factors associated with seropositivity against the 2 viruses were identified. A sample of 4 ml of blood was taken from each animal to extract plasma and make indirect Elisa tests to detect antibodies against both pathogens. General seropositivity of 27,1% was obtained for EBL, finding as factors associated with seropositivity the inadequate disposition of placental tissues after delivery of the cows and the non-performance of serological tests on new animals entering the herd. For BVD, seropositivity obtained was 50,6%, and the factors associated with seropositivity identified were having had a history of the disease in the herd, and using semen from bulls that are not known to be free for the infection. We suggest establishing control measures considering the factors associated with each viral infection to limit their expansion in the BON cattle production systems of Colombia.
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