Differences in udder health and immune response traits of Holstein-Friesians, Norwegian Reds, and their crosses in second lactation

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate potential differences in udder health and immune response traits among Holstein-Friesian (HF), Norwegian Red (NR), and NR x HF (NRX) cows on 30 commercial Irish dairy farms. A total of 648 second-lactation cows (HF n = 274, NR n = 207, and NRX n = 167) were immunized with hen egg white lysozyme (HEWL) to induce antibody-mediated immune response (AMIR). Candida albicans was used to induce a cell-mediated immune response, with in vivo delayed-type hypersensitivity used as the indicator. Antibody response to HEWL was measured by ELISA. Udder health defined as mean somatic cell score (SCS) over the lactation, mean SCS within 30 d of the beginning of the immunization, peak SCS for each individual cow during lactation, and incidence of mastitis were statistically superior for the NR. The NR had a greater primary AMIR, producing greater concentrations of anti-HEWL immunoglobulin G on d 14 compared with HF and NRX. No difference was observed among the breed groups in the magnitude of secondary AMIR (d 21 post-immunization) or cell-mediated immune response. The proportion of high and low responders was similar across breed groups. Cows with high AMIR and high cell-mediated immune response had significantly lower mean SCS within 30 d of the start of the immunization, but greater occurrence of clinical mastitis, recorded as a binary trait over the course of the lactation. Otherwise, no significant difference in udder health was evident between cows designated as high and low responders. Although differences in mean breed group SCS values were in line with group mean AMIR values, no association was found among the traits when correlated on an individual cow basis. Results highlight the superiority of the NR with regard to udder health and suggest that improvements to udder health may result from crossbreeding with the NR. However, the immune response traits investigated proved to be inconsistent indicators of udder health.

Calving traits, milk production, body condition, fertility, and survival of Holstein-Friesian and Norwegian Red dairy cattle on commercial dairy farms over 5 lactations

“…Similar findings have been recorded in other studies, with Walsh et al (2007) observing NR cows to have a lower SCS than HF cows in a 5-yr study. Similarly, Begley et al (2008) observed NR cows to have a significantly lower SCS than Holstein cows during their first lactation in a study conducted on 46 Irish farms and, in a further analysis of data from the same study (30 farms), Begley et al (2009) found average SCC and peak SCC to be lower with NR cows during their second lactation. Although SCC is known to be positively genetically correlated with milk yield (Mrode and Swanson, 1996), only relatively small differences existed in milk yields between breeds in the current study, suggesting that the lower SCC observed with the NR cows was largely a function of the selection program that has been implemented in Norway.…”

“…Indeed, in this latter study, evidence existed of increased culling due to poor udder health with the HF breed, in agreement with the findings of the current study. Begley et al (2009) also observed an increased primary antibody-mediated immune response with NR compared with HF cows, and suggested that this might be indicative of a greater ability to combat initial infection or challenge, especially in relation to extracellular pathogens. However, those authors observed no difference in cell-mediated immune response between breeds, and noted that associations between SCS or mastitis occurrence and immune responses were inconsistent.…”

Influence of age, body weight and body condition score before mating start date on the pubertal rate of maiden Holstein–Friesian heifers and implications for subsequent cow performance and profitability

“…Dairy MIS is a recorder-based computerised database where detailed information regarding stock, farm inputs and production events are recorded on a regular basis. These heifers were part of a breed comparison study, detail of which is available from Begley et al (2009) and Archbold et al (2011). Herds were visited once, on average 9 (s.d.…”

Suitability of cross-bred cows for organic farms based on cross-breeding effects on production and functional traits

“…On the Dutch organic farms, HF cows are, based on milk and protein yields (in kg produced in 305 days), superior to all of the other breeds. HF cows are also shown to be superior for milk and protein yields on conventional farms in Ireland (Begley et al, 2009;Penasa et al, 2010) and in United States of America (Heins et al, 2008). When analysing the fat production (in kg or as percentage of the milk contents), Jersey cows showed highest production levels on Dutch organic farms.…”