Use of Plasma Metabolite Concentrations after Glucose Injection to Predict the Genetic Ability of Milk Production in Young Calves

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify useful secondary traits to improve the prediction of the genetic ability of milk production in dairy cattle. Thirty-seven Holstein calves were injected with glucose at the rate of 0.15 g/kg body weight after 24 h fast. A total of 566 milk records in 238 Holstein cows were collected. Plasma glucose concentration reached a peak 10 min after the injection. The concentrations of plasma non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and total ketone decreased 20 and 30 min after the injection, respectively. The collected blood samples were classified into 3 time groups: T1, 10 to 30 min; T2, 40 to 60 min; and T3, 70 to 90 min after the glucose injection. Heritability estimates of the plasma glucose, NEFA and total ketone concentrations ranged from 0.60 to 0.97 among the 3 time groups (T1, T2, and T3). Genetic correlation between the plasma glucose concentration and milk yield ranged from 0.50 to 0.76 in T1, T2 and T3. Genetic correlation between plasma glucose concentration and fat yield in T1 and T2 was -0.43 and -0.35, respectively. Genetic correlations between plasma NEFA or total ketone concentrations and milk production ranged from -0.22 to -0.97. The use of the concentrations of plasma metabolites increased the reliability of breeding values for animals without milk records by 7.7 to 122.9%, suggesting that the determination of the concentrations of plasma metabolites may improve the accuracy of prediction of the genetic ability of milk production traits. The combination of fast and glucose injection provides a suitable technique for generating plasma metabolites to predict the genetic merit of milk production in dairy cattle.

Influence of food deprivation on intravenous glucose tolerance test traits in Holstein Friesian heifers

“…Therefore, altered glucose tolerance values could be linked to impaired metabolic responses 7711 at early stages, which could become an important selection criterion for animal health in the future. Other studies have proposed that glucose responses could predict the genetic ability for milk production in female calves (Sasaki et al, 2003) and heifers (Fiedorowicz et al, 2008).…”

Estimation of Genetic Parameters for Daily Milk Yield, Somatic Cell Score, Milk Urea Nitrogen, Blood Glucose and Immunoglobulin in Holsteins

“…Genetic correlation between MUN and IgG was negative (-0.35). Heritability of blood glucose was medium (0.21), however previous study reported high heritability (0.69) after intravenous injection of glucose to Holsteins (Sasaki et al, 2003). In this study heritability of IgG was estimated 0.43.…”

Glucose tolerance, ketose indices and body weight changes in heifers after calving

“…Table 2 It is difficult to compare our results with those obtained in other studies, because there is no information in the literature concerning the relationships between the GTT parameters of heifers and their body weight after the first calving. On the other hand, the results of some investigations indicate that there is significant correlation between GTT parameters and milk yield and its chemical composition (Sasaki et al, 2003). Moreover, a close correlation between the body weight of cows and their milk yield was shown (Van Arendonk, 1992).…”

“…Early prediction of dairy cattle milk traits on the basis of the relationship between the rate and pathway of energy metabolism of animals in early stages of life has been studied (Panicke et al, 2002;Sasaki et al, 2003). Little information on the relationship between the parameters of the glucose tolerance test (GTT) of young heifers and their body weight in the periparturient period and at the peak of lactation is available in the literature, however.…”