Genealogical and genomic heritability for adaptability and reproductive traits in the colombian creole cattle breeds blanco orejinegro and sanmartinero

Abstract

The Colombian Creole bovine breeds Blanco Orejinegro (BON) and Sanmartinero (SM) are the most important of the Creole breeds in Colombia because they are the most numerous, the most widely used in their pure form or in crosses with foreign breeds, and because they are dual-purpose producers of milk and meat. We estimated heritability for adaptability (coefficient of adaptability-CA and heat tolerance coefficient-HTC), and reproductive traits (age at first calving-AFC and calving interval-CI) using genomic and genealogical records. Variance components were estimated using the AIREMLF90 program under a mixed single-trait model to calculate genealogical and genomic heritability, based on genealogical, phenotypic, and genomic information. Genomic information was obtained for 1,262 BON and 742 SM genotyped animals, with a total of 58,868 single nucleotide polymorphisms-SNPs in BON, and 57,482 SNPs in SM. Genealogical heritability values in BON for CA and HTC were 0.05 and 0.13, and 0.06 and 0.13 for AFC and CI, respectively. For the SM breed, genealogical heritability values for CA and HTC were 0.08 and 0.09, and 0.20 and 0.07 for AFC and CI, respectively. Genomic heritability values in the BON breed for CA and HTC were 0.06 and 0.16, and 0.07 and 0.14 for AFC and CI, respectively. For the SM breed, genomic heritability values for CA and HTC were 0.10 and 0.11, and 0.20 and 0.07 for AFC and CI, respectively. Heritabilities for adaptability traits in both BON and SM were of medium to low magnitude, indicating the possibility of using these variables in selection schemes for adaptation-related characteristics.