1Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems,Division of Livestock Sciences,University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU),Gregor Mendel-Str. 33,A-1180 Vienna,Austria.
2ZuchtData EDV-Dienstleistungen GmbH,Dresdner Str. 89/19,A-1200 Vienna,Austria.
Animal. 2019 Jan;13(1):209-212. doi: 10.1017/S1751731118001465. Epub 2018 Jun 29.
Alpine transhumance or droving livestock to mountainous areas during summer months is highly relevant for Austrian agriculture but also for other countries in Alpine regions. Access of rearing stock to mountain pastures is often claimed to be beneficial with respect to health and longevity, but the robust evidence is scarce. Therefore, its effect was tested by including it in the routine genetic evaluation data set for longevity. Alpine transhumance records from 2004 to 2013 were used. After several plausibility checks and restriction to animals with sire and dam known, records of 871 287 dual-purpose Fleckvieh cows sired by 9953 bulls were available. Data were analysed by means of survival analysis accounting for the time-dependent fixed effects of region-year-season, relative performance within herd, change of herd size, and Alpine pasturing of cows, the fixed effects age at first calving and Alpine pasturing of rearing stock, the random time-dependent effect of herd-year and the random genetic effects of sire and maternal grandsire. Fleckvieh cows that had access to Alpine pasture during their rearing period at least once for a minimum of 60 days had functional longevity that was nearly 2 months prolonged compared with cows that had always stayed on the farms as calves or heifers. In a more detailed analysis, the lowest relative culling risk among the significant estimates was observed for cows that had been Alpine pastured in years 1 and 3; it was about 15% below that of cows that never had access to mountain grazing. Evidence for the beneficial effect of Alpine pasturing of rearing stock on the animals' later fitness, indicated by longevity, could thus be provided.
高山转场或夏季将牲畜赶到山区，这对奥地利农业非常重要，但对阿尔卑斯地区的其他国家也很重要。人们常说，牲畜进入山地牧场对健康和长寿有益，但目前这方面的证据还很少。因此，将其纳入常规遗传评估数据集中，以评估其对寿命的影响。本研究使用了 2004 年至 2013 年的高山转场记录。经过多次合理性检查，并对已知公母牛的动物进行限制后，获得了 9953 头公牛的 871287 头兼用弗莱维赫奶牛的记录。通过生存分析对数据进行了分析，该分析考虑了与时间相关的区域-年份-季节的固定效应、 herd 内的相对表现、 herd 规模的变化以及奶牛的高山放牧、首次产犊年龄和牲畜高山放牧的固定效应、 herd-year 的随机时变效应以及 sire 和 maternal grandsire 的随机遗传效应。与始终作为犊牛或小母牛留在农场的奶牛相比，在育肥期间至少有一次至少 60 天进入高山牧场的弗莱维赫奶牛的功能寿命延长了近 2 个月。在更详细的分析中，在显著估计值中，观察到高山放牧的奶牛的相对淘汰风险最低；与从未接触过山地放牧的奶牛相比，其淘汰风险约低 15%。因此，可以提供高山放牧对牲畜后来适应能力（以寿命表示）有益的证据。
