Genetic Parameters of Health Disorders, and Relationships with 305-Day Milk Yield and Conformation Traits of Registered Holstein Cows

Abstract

A total of 4368 first lactation records for Holstein cows from 30 herds was used to estimate genetic parameters for yield, conformation traits, and the binary coded disease traits of udder edema, milk fever, retained placenta, metritis, displaced abomasum, ketosis, cystic ovary, mastitis, and lameness. Data on health, parentage, and yield came from an on-farm program for record keeping and management. Test day production data were obtained from British Columbia DHI. Type classification data were received from the Holstein Association of Canada. Heritabilities of disease traits were low, ranging from 0 to 0.05. Exceptions were lameness (0.16) and ketosis (0.39). Correlations of disease traits with 305-d milk yield and of selected type traits with retained placenta, displaced abomasum, mastitis, and lameness were estimated. Phenotypic correlations did not substantially differ from 0 except for the correlation between lameness and rear leg set (0.37). Genetic correlations between disease traits and milk yield were mostly positive (0.02 to 0.44). Only retained placenta had a negative genetic correlation with milk yield (-0.28). Genetic correlations ranged from 0 to 0.37 between udder conformation traits and mastitis, from -0.38 to 0.09 between leg conformation traits and lameness, and from -0.11 to 0.38 between rump conformation and retained placenta. The results suggest that selection based solely on yield may increase the incidence of disease. Selection on conformation traits can help reduce the incidence of disease, although genetic correlations are low.