Health recording in Canadian Holsteins: Data and genetic parameters

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate if health data recorded by Canadian dairy producers can be used for genetic selection. Eight diseases are recorded by producers on a voluntary basis: mastitis, displaced abomasum, ketosis, milk fever, retained placenta, metritis, cystic ovaries, and lameness. Between 40 to 60% of all herds had to be excluded by editing procedures for each trait, assuming unreliable health recording. All analyses were carried out for first-lactation Holstein cows. The majority of disease cases occurred in the first month of lactation. Mean disease frequencies were 12.6, 3.7, 4.5, 4.6, 10.8, 8.2, and 9.2% for mastitis, displaced abomasum, ketosis, retained placenta, metritis, cystic ovaries, and lameness, respectively. Milk fever was very rare in first-lactation cows with a frequency of only 0.20%, and was, therefore, not considered in the analyses. Univariate and bivariate linear animal models were fitted. Heritabilities for mastitis, displaced abomasum, ketosis, retained placenta, metritis, cystic ovaries, and lameness were 0.02, 0.06, 0.03, 0.03, 0.02, 0.03, and 0.01, respectively. Genetic correlations between diseases were mostly positive. The strongest genetic correlations were found between displaced abomasum and ketosis (0.64) and between retained placenta and metritis (0.62). The remaining genetic correlations ranged from -0.22 (between metritis and lameness) to 0.49 (between mastitis and lameness). In agreement with the genetic correlations, the largest phenotypic correlations were found between displaced abomasum and ketosis (0.27) and retained placenta and metritis (0.14). All other phenotypic correlations were low and close to zero (0.00 to 0.06). Pearson correlations between breeding values for health traits and other routinely evaluated traits were computed, which revealed noticeable favorable relationships to direct herd life and fertility. In addition, a moderate favorable association was found between mastitis and somatic cell score. Mastitis is the most promising trait to be included in routine genetic evaluation, because it is the most recorded disease and has a high frequency and positive genetic correlations to all other health traits. Although, about 40% of all Canadian dairy producers participate in the health-recording system, a large proportion of the data are lost after data validation. Thus, dairy producers should be encouraged to keep accurate and complete health data.

Incidence Rates of Clinical Mastitis among Canadian Holsteins Classified as High, Average, or Low Immune Responders

“…Positive genetic correlations (0.19 to 0.49) exist between mastitis and other diseases, like milk fever, ketosis, and retained placenta (37). This was true in a study in a large U.S. commercial dairy that found high immune response cows had not only less mastitis but also less metritis, retained placenta, and displaced abomasums (15).…”

Genetic analysis of milk β-hydroxybutyrate and its association with fat-to-protein ratio, body condition score, clinical ketosis, and displaced abomasum in early first lactation of Canadian Holsteins

“…Subclinical ketosis is characterized by increased concentrations of the ketone bodies acetoacetate, BHBA, and acetone in blood, milk, and urine, without any clinical signs. Observed incidences for subclinical ketosis range from 12 to 43% (Duffield et al, 1997;Geishauser et al, 2000;McArt et al, 2012), which are much higher than the 0.5 to 5.1% incidence rates found for clinical ketosis (van Dorp et al, 1999;LeBlanc et al, 2005;Koeck et al, 2012).…”

Genetic relationships between detailed reproductive traits and performance traits in Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle

“…An unfavorable genetic association has been previously documented between CS and milk production (Hooijer et al, 2001;Koeck et al, 2012). However, methods of detection of cystic structures vary between studies, and this could contribute to the inconsistency in results among studies.…”