Genetic relationship between superovulatory response traits and carcass traits in Japanese Black cattle

Abstract

We estimated the genetic correlations between superovulatory response traits and carcass traits in Japanese Black cattle. As regards the superovulatory response traits in cows, we analyzed the phenotypic records of the total number of embryos and oocytes (TNE) and the number of good embryos (NGE) collected from 1532 donors between 2008 and 2018. As regards the carcass traits in fattened animals, we analyzed the phenotypic records for cold carcass weight, rib eye area, rib thickness, subcutaneous fat thickness, estimated yield percent, and marbling score for 1448 progenies derived from 596 donors and slaughtered between 2004 and 2020.Variance components were estimated using single-trait and two-trait animal models and the restricted maximum likelihood approach. The estimated genetic correlations with the carcass traits ranged from À0.05 to 0.04 for TNE and from À0.14 to 0.04 for NGE, and their standard errors ranged from 0.10 to 0.14. These results imply that the genetic relationship between the superovulatory response traits in Japanese Black donor cows and the carcass traits in their fattened progenies was weak to negligible. Therefore, we concluded that selecting donors with superior genetic ability for superovulatory responses would not have antagonistic effects on carcass performance in their fattened progenies.

Genomic heritability and correlation between carcass traits in Japanese Black cattle evaluated under different ceilings of relatedness among individuals

“…McEwin et al (2018) ; Oyama (2011) reviewed the unweighted average of heritability for carcass traits in Japanese Black cattle, and presented values similar to the present estimates for CW (0.48), REA (0.46), RT (0.38), and YI (0.48), whereas those for BMS (0.55) and SFT (0.39) were higher and lower than those obtained here, respectively. For most carcass traits, our estimates were lower than the values reported in earlier studies ( Mukai et al, 1995 ; Inoue et al, 2015 ; Takeda et al, 2017 ; Takeda et al, 2018 ; Zoda et al, 2022 ). The estimated heritability for CW was lower than the values reported by Takeda et al (2017) (0.57), Uchida et al (2001) (0.64), Hoque et al (2009) (0.6), and Zoda et al (2022) (0.8).…”

“…For most carcass traits, our estimates were lower than the values reported in earlier studies ( Mukai et al, 1995 ; Inoue et al, 2015 ; Takeda et al, 2017 ; Takeda et al, 2018 ; Zoda et al, 2022 ). The estimated heritability for CW was lower than the values reported by Takeda et al (2017) (0.57), Uchida et al (2001) (0.64), Hoque et al (2009) (0.6), and Zoda et al (2022) (0.8). These results were somewhat expected because the estimated heritability values based on genomic data or single nucleotide polymorphisms are significantly lower than those are calculated by the traditional pedigree method ( Visscher et al, 2010 ; Yang et al, 2010 ).…”

“…The phenotypic values associated with carcass traits are presented entirely by Onogi et al (2021) . As shown in Table 1 , the average values for CW, RE, RT, BMS, and YI were larger than those reported by previous studies in Japanese Black cattle ( Mukai et al, 1995 ; Sasaki et al, 2006 ; Zoda et al, 2022 ). In this study, the SFT value (2.89 and 2.49 cm) was smaller than the values observed by Mukai et al (1995) ; Sasaki et al (2006) .…”

“…To date, the use of pedigree for estimating the genetic parameter of quantitative traits has been widely used in various studies ( Sasaki et al, 2006 ; Hoque et al, 2009 ; Takeda et al, 2018 ). However, the accuracy and completeness of the population information are debatable, which may lead to a biased estimate of the genetic components ( Wainschtein et al, 2021 ; Zoda et al, 2022 ; Špehar et al, 2022 ). The estimated heritability based on pedigree information, because of gene-environment interaction, may be overestimated ( Yang et al, 2015 ; Zhu and Zhou, 2020 ).…”

“…High heritability values are an indicator of a population’s ability to respond quickly to selection ( Falconer and Mackay, 1996 ; Wada et al, 2008 ). Among different studies, the heritability values ranged from 0.07 to 0.80 for the carcass traits of beef cattle ( Kim et al, 2010 ; Oyama, 2011 ; Takeda et al, 2017 ; Zoda et al, 2022 ). The estimation of heritability can be conducted using analyses of either pedigree or genome-wide data.…”