Association of gene BoLA DRB3.2 with production traits in a dairy herd of Antioquia, Colombia

Abstract

Objective. To determine the associations of BoLA DRB3.2 alleles present in Holstein and BON x Holstein cattle to production and milk quality traits in a dairy herd of Antioquia, Colombia. Materials and methods. Ninety-one cows, 66 Holstein and 25 BxH, were genotyped for the BoLA DRB3.2 gene, through PCR-RFLP technique. Furthermore, the association of the alleles of the gene BoLA DRB3.2 with milk yield (PL305), fat yield (PG305), protein yield (PP305) fat percentage (PGRA) and protein percentage (PPRO) were determined, using a general linear model. Results. Twenty-seven BoLA DRB3.2 alleles were identified; the most frequent alleles in Holstein were: BoLA DRB3.2*23, 22, and 24 with frequencies of: 0.159, 0.129, and 0.106, respectively and the most frequent alleles in BxH were: BoLA DRB3.2*23, 24 and 20 with frequencies of: 0.20, 0.140, and 0.120, respectively. Associations of BoLA DRB3.2 alleles with production and milk quality traits were also determined. In Holstein cows the BoLA DRB3.2*36 allele was associated with low PL305 (p≤0.01), high PGRA in multiparous cows (p≤0.05) and high PG305 in primiparous cows (p≤0.01). The BoLA DRB3.2*33 allele was associated with increased in the PPRO in multiparous cows (p≤0.01). In BXH cows only the BoLA DRB3*19 allele was associated with high PGRA (p≤0.05). Conclusions. The gene BoLA DRB3.2 shows high polymorphism in both groups; Holstein and BxH and some of its allelic variants were associated with production and milk quality traits.

Influence of BoLA-DRB3 Polymorphism and Bovine Leukemia Virus (BLV) Infection on Dairy Cattle Productivity

“…To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study reporting the combined effect of both BLV infection and BoLA-DRB3 on dairy cattle productivity. BoLA-DRB3 polymorphisms are reportedly considered valuable in controlling the risk of horizontal and vertical transmission of BLV [16,27,28]. In addition, our results indicate that new BoLA-DRB3-specific measures to increase the number of resistant dams and eliminate preferentially susceptible dams may not affect dairy cattle productivity.…”

“…Polymorphisms in this region are associated with individual differences in an immune response to a particular infectious disease, such as mastitis [10], tick-borne disease [11,12], foot and mouth disease [13], bovine herpesvirus 1 [14], and bovine papillomavirus-induced bladder cancer [15]. Moreover, Bo-LA-DRB3 polymorphism affects dairy cattle productivity such as milk quality and production rate during a mastitis infection [16], the microbiota in colostrum and milk [17], as well as reproduction rates in neosporosis [18]. Particularly, BoLA-DRB3 is reportedly associated with mastitis and somatic cell count (SCC) [19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

Association of BoLA DRB3 gene polymorphisms with BoHV-1 infection and zootechnical traits

“…They reported as well, that allele *16 decreases acute and chronic SCS, that allele *22 increases chronic SCS in first lactation, allele * 7 increases milk yield and udder health problems (but strangely in production systems milk has low frequency), allele *24 increases udder health problems, and allele *26 decreases milk yields. In Colombia, Zambrano et al (2014), analyzing DRB3 polymorphisms and productive traits of the same type of livestock analyzed for mastitis, determined that allele *36 decreased milk yield adjusted to 305 days, but increased percentages of fat and protein in multiparous and primiparous cows, respectively; likewise, they determined that allele *33 increased percentage of protein and allele *19 increased percentage of fat but only in BON x Holstein cows. In the Holstein cattle population studied, the most common BoLA DRB3.2 alleles were *8, *22, *16, and *24; also, a 58.7% BoHV-1 prevalence was detected.…”

“…One of these genes is the BoLA DRB3.2, part of the major histocompatibility complex, which has more than 100 polymorphic sites only in exon 2 (Amills et al, 1998). This gene has been widely related to immunological traits (Dietz et al, 1997), resistance or susceptibility to various diseases (Keirn et al, 2001), and production traits and milk quality (Davies et al, 1992;Nascimento et al, 2006;Zambrano et al, 2014). Some diseases affect especially the dairy systems, and bovine herpesvirus 1 (BoHV-1) is an important pathogen that causes great losses in most production systems.…”

BoLA-DRB3 Polymorphism Associated with Bovine Leukemia Virus Infection and Proviral Load in Holstein Cattle in Egypt

“…Many investigations have revealed a link between one or more BoLA-DRB3 alleles and susceptibility or resistance to a range of infectious diseases in cattle, including mastitis [33][34][35][36], dermatophilosis [37], tick-borne disease [38,39], foot-and-mouth disease [40], and bovine herpesvirus 1 [41]. Additionally, BoLA allele associations with aspects related to milk production, growth, and fertility have been observed [34,42,43]. It has also been noted that BoLA-DRB3 polymorphisms affect vaccine efficiency, such as vaccines for footand-mouth disease and Theileria parva [44,45].…”