Genetic correlations between female fertility and postweaning growth and feed efficiency traits in multibreed beef cattle

Mu, Yulian; Voort, Gordon Vander; Abo-Ismail, Mohammed; Ventura, Ricardo Vieira; Jamrozik, J.; Miller, Stephen

doi:10.1139/cjas-2015-0175

Cited by 14 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…The heritability estimates are consistent with the values reported in the literature for subcutaneous fat thickness of both B. taurus (Schenkel et al, 2004;Pires et al, 2017) and B. indicus (Santana et al, 2014), as well as for scrotal circumference (Schenkel et al, 2004;Silva et al, 2013;Pires et al, 2017). However, the heritability for days to calving obtained in the present study was higher than that reported for B. taurus (Mu et al, 2016) and B. indicus (Forni and Albuquerque, 2005), whereas the heritability for RFI was lower than either B. taurus (Mu et al, 2016) or B. indicus (Santana et al, 2014). Although the heritabilities estimated using part of the present feed efficient database are high for the traits involved in the calculation of RFI, 0.41 to 0.53 for DMI, ADG, and metabolic midtest weight (Grion et al, 2014;Ceacero et al, 2016), the estimates obtained for RFI are lower than those reported in the literature (Del Claro et al, 2012).…”

Section: Genetic Evaluationsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Crowley et al (2011) reported antagonistic genetic correlations of medium magnitude between age at first calving and RFI and between age at first calving and feed conversion. Mu et al (2016) found genetic correlations close to zero of first pregnancy rate, repeated pregnancy rate, number of services per conception, and pregnancy duration with RFI. However, the authors reported an antagonistic genetic correlation of medium magnitude (−0.34) between days to calving and RFI.…”

Section: Genetic Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…There are evidences of undesirable correlation between fertility and feed efficiency in some species such as mice, pig, and poultry (Pitchford, 2004). More recently, some authors (Arthur et al, 2005;Donoghue et al, 2011;Mu et al, 2016) also provided evidence that selection for RFI may result in negative effects on the fertility of cattle. However, Basarab et al (2011) and Lawrence et al (2011) found no differences in reproductive traits or offspring performance between high and low RFI females.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evidence of negative relationship between female fertility and feed efficiency in Nellore cattle1,2

Ferreira¹,

Bonilha²,

Monteiro³

et al. 2018

Journal of Animal Science

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The objective of this study was to evaluate phenotypic and genetic relationships between fertility traits and feed efficiency in male and female Nellore cattle. Data from 320 females born between 2004 and 2011 were used for phenotypic evaluation. These animals were evaluated for postweaning residual feed intake (RFI) and classified as negative (RFI < 0, mean = -0.294 ± 0.017 kg DM/d) or positive RFI (RFI > 0, mean = 0.305 ± 0.0189 kg DM/d). Of these, 118 prepuberal heifers were submitted to ultrasonography of the uterus and ovaries for monitoring the presence (or absence) of a corpus luteum and for the measurement of endometrial thickness. The following fertility traits were evaluated in all females: age at first calving, days to calving, first calving interval, calving success, stayability, and longevity. The variance components were estimated by the average information restricted maximum likelihood method under an animal model in 5-trait analysis of backfat and rump fat thickness, scrotal circumference, days to calving, and RFI. The total number of animals with records was 6,718, including 927 males with records of scrotal circumference and RFI and 264 females with records of days to calving and RFI. Negative RFI females consumed 12.5% less DM daily than positive RFI females and had a lower rump fat thickness when evaluated postweaning. Among the fertility traits studied, only first calving interval differed (P = 0.0858) between RFI classes, with the interval of negative RFI females being 45 d shorter than that of positive RFI animals. The heritability estimates were 0.29, 0.34, 0.50, 0.12, and 0.16 for backfat and rump fat thickness, scrotal circumference, days to calving, and RFI, respectively. The genetic correlations between RFI and the other traits studied were unfavorable for selection and were of moderate magnitude with backfat thickness, rump fat thickness, and days to calving (0.53, 0.37, and -0.49, respectively) and close to zero with scrotal circumference (0.07). Scrotal circumference (0.17 and 0.15) and days to calving (-0.10 and -0.22) were weakly and favorably correlated with backfat and rump fat thickness. There is evidence of moderate genetic antagonism between female fertility and feed efficiency, but with no evidence of a genetic correlation between male fertility and feed efficiency. There is also evidence of low genetic synergism between fat thickness and fertility.

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Section: Genetic Evaluationsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Genetic Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Evidence of negative relationship between female fertility and feed efficiency in Nellore cattle1,2

Ferreira¹,

Bonilha²,

Monteiro³

et al. 2018

Journal of Animal Science

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“…As a result efficient bulls had delayed sexual maturity as a strong relationship exists between the onset of puberty and RFI in cattle even after adjustment for body composition (Huang et al, 2006). Although selection of efficient animals based on FCR was not found to affect female fertility traits, selection of efficient animals based on RFI had an unfavourable effect on days to calving (Mu et al, 2016). Genes involved in the MAPK signalling pathway and linked to tissue development especially ossification and adipose tissue were found to have pleotropic effects on calving ease and birth weight (Saatchi et al, 2014).…”

Section: Implications For Knowledge Of Molecular Pathways and Biomarkersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review: Biological determinants of between-animal variation in feed efficiency of growing beef cattle

Cantalapiedra-Hijar

Abo-Ismail

Carstens

et al. 2018

Animal

168

112

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Animal's feed efficiency in growing cattle (i.e. the animal ability to reach a market or adult BW with the least amount of feed intake), is a key factor in the beef cattle industry. Feeding systems have made huge progress to understand dietary factors influencing the average animal feed efficiency. However, there exists a considerable amount of animal-to-animal variation around the average feed efficiency observed in beef cattle reared in similar conditions, which is still far from being understood. This review aims to identify biological determinants and molecular pathways involved in the between-animal variation in feed efficiency with particular reference to growing beef cattle phenotyped for residual feed intake (RFI). Moreover, the review attempts to distinguish true potential determinants from those revealed through simple associations or indirectly linked to RFI through their association with feed intake. Most representative and studied biological processes which seem to be connected to feed efficiency were reviewed, such as feeding behaviour, digestion and methane production, rumen microbiome structure and functioning, energy metabolism at the whole body and cellular levels, protein turnover, hormone regulation and body composition. In addition, an overall molecular network analysis was conducted for unravelling networks and their linked functions involved in between-animal variation in feed efficiency. The results from this review suggest that feeding and digestive-related mechanisms could be associated with RFI mainly because they co-vary with feed intake. Although much more research is warranted, especially with high-forage diets, the role of feeding and digestive related mechanisms as true determinants of animal variability in feed efficiency could be minor. Concerning the metabolic-related mechanisms, despite the scarcity of studies using reference methods it seems that feed efficient animals have a significantly lower energy metabolic rate independent of the associated intake reduction. This lower heat production in feed efficient animals may result from a decreased protein turnover and a higher efficiency of ATP production in mitochondria, both mechanisms also identified in the molecular network analysis. In contrast, hormones and body composition could not be conclusively related to animal-to-animal variation in feed efficiency. The analysis of potential biological networks underlying RFI variations highlighted other significant pathways such as lipid metabolism and immunity and stress response. Finally, emerging knowledge suggests that metabolic functions underlying genetic variation in feed efficiency could be associated with other important traits in animal production. This emphasizes the relevance of understanding the biological basis of relevant animal traits to better define future balanced breeding programmes.

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“…In the last decades, the increase in selection for production traits has been followed by a decrease in fertility efficiency in beef and dairy cattle (Berry et al, 2016;Thundathil et al, 2016). Selection for performance traits to improve production efficiency has an unfavorable negative genetic correlation with fertility traits (Mu et al, 2016). Previous studies have evaluated the association between performance and fertility traits in beef bulls and revealed that more feed-efficient bulls have decreased sperm motility, sperm viability, and scrotal circumference, when compared with less feed-efficient bulls (Awda et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic mechanisms underlying spermatic and testicular traits within and among cattle breeds: systematic review and prioritization of GWAS results1

Fonseca

Santos

Lam

et al. 2018

Journal of Animal Science

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Reduced bull fertility imposes economic losses in bovine herds. Specifically, testicular and spermatic traits are important indicators of reproductive efficiency. Several genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified genomic regions associated with these fertility traits. The aims of this study were as follows: 1) to perform a systematic review of GWAS results for spermatic and testicular traits in cattle and 2) to identify key functional candidate genes for these traits. The identification of functional candidate genes was performed using a systems biology approach, where genes shared between traits and studies were evaluated by a guilt by association gene prioritization (GUILDify and ToppGene software) in order to identify the best functional candidates. These candidate genes were integrated and analyzed in order to identify overlapping patterns among traits and breeds. Results showed that GWAS for testicular-related traits have been developed for beef breeds only, whereas the majority of GWAS for spermatic-related traits were conducted using dairy breeds. When comparing traits measured within the same study, the highest number of

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Genetic correlations between female fertility and postweaning growth and feed efficiency traits in multibreed beef cattle

Cited by 14 publications

References 35 publications

Evidence of negative relationship between female fertility and feed efficiency in Nellore cattle1,2

Evidence of negative relationship between female fertility and feed efficiency in Nellore cattle1,2

Review: Biological determinants of between-animal variation in feed efficiency of growing beef cattle

Genetic mechanisms underlying spermatic and testicular traits within and among cattle breeds: systematic review and prioritization of GWAS results1

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