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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #324734
Title: Opportunities for genetic improvement of metabolic diseases

Author
item PRYCE, JENNIE - Department Of Primary Industries
item PARKER GADDIS, KRISTEN - University Of Florida
item KOECK, ASTRID - University Of Guelph
item BASTIN, CHRISTINE - University Of Liege
item ABDELSAYED, MARY - Holstein Uk
item GENGLER, NICOLAS - University Of Liege
item MIGLIOR, FILIPPO - Canadian Dairy Network
item HERINGSTAD, BJORG - Norwegian University Of Life Sciences
item EGGER-DANNER, CHRISTA - Central Association Of Austrian Cattle Breeders(ZAR)
item STOCK, KATHARINA - United Information Systems Livestock Wv (VIT)
item BRADLEY, ANDREW - Quality Milk Management Services, Ltc
item Cole, John

Submitted to: Journal of Dairy Science
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/26/2016
Publication Date: 9/1/2016
Citation: Pryce, J., Parker Gaddis, K.L., Koeck, A., Bastin, C., Abdelsayed, M., Gengler, N., Miglior, F., Heringstad, B., Egger-Danner, C., Stock, K., Bradley, A., Cole, J.B. 2016. Invited review: Opportunities for genetic improvement of metabolic diseases. Journal of Dairy Science. 99(9):6855-6873.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Metabolic disorders are disturbances to one or more of the metabolic processes in dairy cattle. Dysfunction of any of these processes is associated with the manifestation of metabolic diseases or disorders. In this review, data recording, incidences, genetic parameters, predictors and status of genetic evaluations were examined for (1) ketosis (2) displaced abomasum, (3) milk fever and (4) tetany, as these are the most prevalent metabolic diseases where published genetic parameters are available. The reported incidences of clinical cases of metabolic disorders are generally low (less than 10% of cows are recorded as having a metabolic disease per herd per year or parity / lactation). Heritability estimates are also low and are typically less than 5%. Genetic correlations between metabolic traits are generally positive, indicating that selection to improve one of these diseases is likely to have a positive impact on the others. Furthermore, there may also be opportunities to select for general disease resistance in terms of metabolic stability. Although there is inconsistency in published genetic correlation estimates between milk yield and metabolic traits, selection for milk yield may be expected to lead to a deterioration in metabolic disorders. Under-recording and difficulty in diagnosing subclinical cases are amongst the reasons why there is growing interest in using easily measurable predictors of metabolic diseases, either recorded ‘on-farm’ by using sensors and milk tests or ‘off-farm’ using data collected from routine milk recording. Some countries have already initiated genetic evaluations of metabolic disease traits and currently most of these use clinical observations of disease. However, there are opportunities to use clinical diseases in addition to predictor traits and genomic information to strengthen genetic evaluations for metabolic health in the future.