Genetic evaluation for body condition score in Italian Brown Swiss cattle

Rossoni, Attilio; Nicoletti, C; Bonetti, Omar; Testa, Laura M.; Santus, Enrico

doi:10.4081/ijas.2007.1s.198

Cited by 1 publication

(3 citation statements)

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“…Heritability for BCS was 0.141 (lower and upper bound of the 95% highest posterior density region: 0.096 to 0.188; Table 3), which is comparable to estimates of 0.15 and 0.19 reported by Dal Zotto et al ( 2007) and Rossoni et al (2007a), respectively, in Italian Brown Swiss cows, but lower than heritabilities from other studies that scored BCS once per cow during lactation. Zink et al (2011) estimated a heritability of 0.30 for Holsteins, but all cows were from only 1 experimental farm.…”

Section: Heritability Of Body Condition Production and Fertility Traitssupporting

confidence: 77%

“…has reported similar or larger estimates between linear measures of BCS and reproductive performance. The genetic correlation between BCS and calving interval in Brown Swiss cattle was −0.35 in the study of Dal Zotto et al ( 2007) and −0.67 in Rossoni et al (2007a), and it was −0.48 in Holstein cows (Pryce et al, 2002). Dechow et al (2004) estimated a correlation of −0.30 between BCS and days open, and Zink et al (2011) reported values of −0.30, −0.46, and −0.45 between BCS and iFC, iPC, and iPF, respectively.…”

Section: Genetic Relationships Between Body Condition and Production Traitsmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…From a genetic point of view, BCS treated as a linear trait has been found to be positively related to good fertility. Using a single scoring per cow during lactation, Pryce et al (2002), Dechow et al (2004), Dal Zotto et al (2007, Rossoni et al (2007a), andZink et al (2011) reported genetic correlations of BCS with calving interval or days open ranging from −0.30 to −0.67, which means that genetically less conditioned cows are likely to take a longer time to conceive after calving. Several authors analyzed repeated observations of BCS within a given lactation, modeling this trait using multipletrait (Dechow et al, 2001;Gallo et al, 2001;Berry et al, 2003) and random regression (Veerkamp et al, 2001;De Haas et al, 2007b;Bastin et al, 2010a) models.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thin and fat cows, and the nonlinear genetic relationship between body condition score and fertility

Tiezzi

Maltecca

Cecchinato

et al. 2013

Journal of Dairy Science

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Thin and fat cows are often credited for low fertility, but body condition score (BCS) has been traditionally treated as a linear trait when genetic correlations with reproductive performance have been estimated. The aims of this study were to assess genetic parameters for fertility, production, and body condition traits in the Brown Swiss population reared in the Alps (Bolzano-Bozen Province, Italy), and to investigate the possible nonlinearity among BCS and other traits by analyzing fat and thin cows. Records of BCS measured on a 5-point scale were preadjusted for year-season and days in milk at scoring, and were considered positive (1) for fat cows if they exceeded the value of 1 residual standard deviation or null (0) otherwise, whereas positive values for thin cows were imputed to records below -1 residual standard deviation. Fertility indicators measured on first- and second-parity cows were interval from parturition to first service, interval from first service to conception, interval from parturition to conception, number of inseminations to conception, conception at first service, and nonreturn rate at 56 d after first service. Production traits were peak milk yield, lactation milk yield, and lactation length. Data were from 1,413 herds and included 16,324 records of BCS, fertility, and production for first-parity, and 10,086 fertility records for second-parity cows. Animals calved from 2002 to 2007 and were progeny of 420 artificial insemination bulls. Genetic parameters for the aforementioned traits were obtained under univariate and bivariate threshold and censored linear sire models implemented in a Bayesian framework. Posterior means of heritabilities for BCS, fat cows, and thin cows were 0.141, 0.122, and 0.115, respectively. Genetic correlations of body condition traits with contemporary production were moderate to high and were between -0.556 and 0.623. Body condition score was moderately related to fertility in first (-0.280 to 0.497) and second (-0.392 to 0.248) lactation. The fat cow trait was scarcely related to fertility, particularly in first-parity cows (-0.203 to 0.281). Finally, the genetic relationships between thin cows and fertility were higher than those between BCS and fertility, both in first (-0.456 to 0.431) and second (-0.335 to 0.524) lactation. Body condition score can be considered a predictor of fertility, and it could be included in evaluation either as linear measure or as thin cow. In the second case, the genetic relationship with fertility was stronger, exacerbating the poorest body condition and considering the possible nonlinearity between fertility and energy reserves of the cow.

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Section: Heritability Of Body Condition Production and Fertility Traitssupporting

confidence: 77%

Section: Genetic Relationships Between Body Condition and Production Traitsmentioning

confidence: 84%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Thin and fat cows, and the nonlinear genetic relationship between body condition score and fertility

Tiezzi

Maltecca

Cecchinato

et al. 2013

Journal of Dairy Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Genetic evaluation for body condition score in Italian Brown Swiss cattle

Cited by 1 publication

References 6 publications

Thin and fat cows, and the nonlinear genetic relationship between body condition score and fertility

Thin and fat cows, and the nonlinear genetic relationship between body condition score and fertility

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