Factors affecting dystocia and early calf mortality in Angus cows and heifers1

Berger, P.J.; Cubas, Antonio Carlos; Koehler, Kenneth J.; Healey, Mary

doi:10.2527/1992.7061775x

Cited by 73 publications

(66 citation statements)

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“…Chromosomes 2, 16 and 12 Birth weight is known to be non-linearly associated with dystocia and perinatal mortality, with lighter and heavier than average calves tending to have an increased risk of mortality and dystocia (Berger et al, 1992). Putative QTL regions affecting birth weight are well documented on chromosome 2; Grosz and MacNeil (2001) reported that ∼2.8 kg difference of birth weight could be accounted for by a QTL residing at the 114 cM region.…”

Section: Chromosome 18mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dystocia and perinatal mortality are influenced by both environmental factors such as age at first calving and season of calving (McGuirk et al, 1999;Berry and Cromie, 2009) and also by genetic factors (Berger et al, 1992;Mee et al, 2011). Heritability estimates range from <0.01 to 0.17 for direct calving difficulty and <0.01 to 0.12 for the maternal components of calving difficulty (Steinbock et al, 2003;Hickey et al, 2007;Johanson et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Genome-wide association study for calving traits in Holstein–Friesian dairy cattle

Purfield

Bradley

Kearney

et al. 2014

Animal

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Dystocia and perinatal mortality are quantitative traits that significantly impact animal productivity and welfare. Their economic importance is reflected by their inclusion in the national breeding goals of many cattle populations. The genetic architecture that influences these traits, however, has still yet to be thoroughly defined. Regions of the bovine genome associated with calving difficulty (direct and maternal) and perinatal mortality were detected in this study using a Bayesian approach with 43 204 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on up to 1970 Holstein-Friesian bulls. Several SNPs on chromosomes 5, 6, 11, 12, 17,18 and 28 were detected to be strongly associated with these calving performance traits. Novel genomic regions with previously reported associations with growth, stature, birth weight and bone morphology were identified in the present study as being associated with the three calving performance traits. Morphological abnormalities are a known contributor to perinatal mortality and the most significantly associated SNP for perinatal mortality in the present study was located in a region in linkage disequilibrium with the gene SLC26A7. This gene, SLC26A7, has similarities and colocalises with SLC4A2, which has previously been associated with osteoporosis and mortality in cattle populations. The HHIP gene that is known to be associated with stature in humans was strongly associated with direct calving difficulty in the present study; large calves are known to, on average, have a greater likelihood of dystocia. A stemloop microRNA, bta-mir-1256, on chromosome 12, involved in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression was associated with maternal calving difficulty. Previously reported quantitative trait loci associated with calving performance traits in other populations were again identified in this study; with one genomic region on chromosome 18 supporting very strong evidence of an underlying causative mutation and accounting for 2.1% of the genetic variation in direct calving difficulty. Overlapping genomic regions associated with one or more of the calving traits were also detected substantiating the known genetic covariances existing between these traits. Moreover, some genomic regions were only associated with one of the calving traits implying the selective genomic breeding programs exploiting these regions could help resolve genetic antagonisms.Keywords: dystocia, mortality, calving difficulty, genomic, quantitative trait loci ImplicationsThis study contributes to the understanding of the underlying genetic architecture and aetiology of dystocia and perinatal mortality both of which are quantitative traits that have a significant economic farm impact. Moreover, the detection of quantitative trait loci associated with only one calving trait can help resolve genetic antagonisms if targeted in genomic breeding programs -for example, selecting for decreased calving difficulty without impacting maternal calving difficulty.

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Section: Chromosome 18mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genome-wide association study for calving traits in Holstein–Friesian dairy cattle

Purfield

Bradley

Kearney

et al. 2014

Animal

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“…CD PTA was reported to be critical for selecting beef sires to mate with either beef or dairy cows, which are expected to give rise to larger calves, whereas when selecting dairy sires, EBI was more important. Regarding parity, calving difficulty PTA became the key genetic trait when selecting both beef and dairy sires to mate to either beef or dairy heifers, likely due to the higher incidence of CD in heifers compared with cows (Berger et al, 1992;Nix et al, 1998), and to worse consequences of problems at calving in primiparous cows which lead to increase culling rates during first lactation (Lopez de Maturana et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Farmer views on calving difficulty consequences on dairy and beef farms

Martín-Collado¹,

Hely²,

Byrne³

et al. 2017

Animal

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Calving difficulty (CD) is a key functional trait with significant influence on herd profitability and animal welfare. Breeding plays an important role in managing CD both at farm and industry level. An alternative to the economic value approach to determine the CD penalty is to complement the economic models with the analysis of farmer perceived on-farm impacts of CD. The aim of this study was to explore dairy and beef farmer views and perceptions on the economic and non-economic on-farm consequences of CD, to ultimately inform future genetic selection tools for the beef and dairy industries in Ireland. A standardised quantitative online survey was released to all farmers with e-mail addresses on the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation database. In total, 271 farmers completed the survey (173 beef farmers and 98 dairy farmers). Both dairy and beef farmers considered CD a very important issue with economic and non-economic components. However, CD was seen as more problematic by dairy farmers, who mostly preferred to slightly reduce its incidence, than by beef farmers, who tended to support increases in calf value even though it would imply a slight increase in CD incidence. Farm size was found to be related to dairy farmer views of CD with farmers from larger farms considering CD as more problematic than farmers from smaller farms. CD breeding value was reported to be critical for selecting beef sires to mate with either beef or dairy cows, whereas when selecting dairy sires, CD had lower importance than breeding values for other traits. There was considerable variability in the importance farmers give to CD breeding values that could not be explained by the farm type or the type of sire used, which might be related to the farmer non-economic motives. Farmer perceived economic value associated with incremental increases in CD increases substantially as the CD level considered increases. This non-linear relationship cannot be reflected in a standard linear index weighting. The results of this paper provide key underpinning support to the development of non-linear index weightings for CD in Irish national indexes.

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“…It is assumed that a breeding cow has a value of US$800, a calf weighs 227 kg at weaning and is valued at US$2.10 per kg when it is marketed at that time. Further, suppose the cost of pelvic measurement is US$3.00 per head, the cost of Cesarean Section is US$160 per head, and that the survival rate of a calf after a difficult birth is 0.9 or 90% [which is lower than that determined by Berger et al (1992)]. Expected returns of the scenarios are calculated using the revenues and costs defined above weighted by the predicted probabilities from the ordered logit model.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The principal cause of dystocia is the incompatibility of fetal size and maternal pelvic size, which has been the focus of various studies (Johnson et al 1988;Van Donkersgoed et al 1990;Berger et al 1992). We specify a basic biological system of two components of the birthing process, fetal BTW and maternal pelvic size.…”

Section: Conceptual Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recursive systems model of fetal birth weight and calving difficulty in beef heifers

Tozer¹,

Scollard²,

Marsh³

et al. 2002

Can. J. Anim. Sci.

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systems model of fetal birth weight and calving difficulty in beef heifers. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 82: 19-27. The purpose of this study was to use readily available information, including dam pelvic width (PW) and height (PH) and the fetal coronet band (CB) measurement to predict the calving difficulty (CD) score of first-calf heifers under commercial ranch conditions. Data were collected from a cow-calf ranch over a 3-yr period. Using a recursive system of equations, two models were estimated. First, a linear model was used to predict birth weight (BTW) based on the fetal CB measurement. Second, an ordered logit model was used to predict calving difficulty score based on a nonlinear relationship with birth weight, pelvic dimensions of the dam, and interaction terms. The linear model demonstrated that BTW could be predicted using the CB measurement, both the intercept and slope coefficients were significant at P < 0.001. The model R 2 was equal to 0.57 and the standard error of the predicted birth weight was 2.77 kg. The ordered logit model correctly predicted 468 of 684 (68.4%) of the CD scores. The results of this research suggest that it is possible to predict dystocia or calving difficulty on a case-by-case basis with information that is available to ranchers or ranch managers early in the parturition process. The management technique presented has been successfully adopted by some large-scale cow-calf operations, thus the results have commercial applications for beef producers. . L'étude devait montrer s'il est possible de prévoir les difficultés de vêlage (DV) des génisses primipares élevées dans un ranch commercial à partir des données existantes, par exemple la largeur (LP) et la hauteur (HP) du bassin chez la mère et la bande de la couronne (BC) chez le foetus. Les données ont été recueillies dans une entreprise de naissage trois années durant. Deux modèles ont été évalués au moyen d'un système récursif d'équations. On s'est d'abord servi d'un modèle linéaire pour prévoir le poids de naissance (PN) après mesure de la BC chez le foetus. Ensuite, on a testé un modèle à logit ordonné pour déterminer les difficultés de vêlage à partir d'une association non linéaire avec le poids de naissance, les dimensions du bassin de la génitrice et les paramètres d'interaction. Le modèle linéaire indique qu'on peut prévoir le PN avec la BC, les coefficients du point d'intersection et de la pente étant significatifs à P < 0,001. La R 2 du modèle était égale à 0,57 et l'erreur-type pour le poids de naissance était de 2,77 kg. Le modèle à logit ordonné prévoit correctement les DV dans 468 cas sur 684 (68,4 %). Les résultats donnent à penser que les éleveurs ou exploitants d'él-evage pourraient prédire la dystocie ou les difficultés de vêlage très rapidement durant la gestation à partir des données à leur disposition. La méthode exposée a été adoptée avec succès par quelques propriétaires de gros élevages, si bien que les résultats trouveront application auprès des producteurs de boeuf.

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Factors affecting dystocia and early calf mortality in Angus cows and heifers1

Cited by 73 publications

References 0 publications

Genome-wide association study for calving traits in Holstein–Friesian dairy cattle

Genome-wide association study for calving traits in Holstein–Friesian dairy cattle

Farmer views on calving difficulty consequences on dairy and beef farms

Recursive systems model of fetal birth weight and calving difficulty in beef heifers

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