Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment, University of Padova, Viale dell'Università, 16, 35020 Legnaro, Padova, Italy.
Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padova, Viale dell'Università, 16, 35020 Legnaro, Padova, Italy.
Animal. 2020 Jan;14(1):13-21. doi: 10.1017/S175173111900168X. Epub 2019 Jul 29.
The success in competitions may be stressful for animals and costly in terms of immune functions and longevity. Focusing on Aosta Chestnut and Aosta Black Pied cattle, selected for their fighting ability in traditional competitions, this study investigated the genetic relationships of fighting ability with udder health traits (somatic cell score and two threshold traits for somatic cells), longevity (length of productive life and number of calvings) and test-day milk, fat and protein yield. Herdbook information and phenotypic records that have been routinely collected for breeding programs in 16 years were used for the abovementioned traits. Data belonged to 9328 cows and 19 283 animals in pedigree. Single-trait animal model analyses were run using a Gibbs sampling algorithm to estimate the variance components of traits, and bivariate analyses were then performed to estimate the genetic correlations. Moderate positive genetic correlations (ra) were found for fighting ability with somatic cell score (ra=0.255), suggesting that greater fighting ability is genetically related to a detriment in udder health, in agreement with the theory. The high positive genetic correlation between fighting ability and longevity (average ra=0.669) suggests that the economic importance of fighting ability (the winning cows get an higher price at selling) had probably masked the true genetic covariances. The genetic correlation between milk yield traits and fighting ability showed large intervals, but the negative values (average ra=-0.121) agreed with previous research. This study is one of the few empirical studies on genetic correlations for the competitive success v. immune functions and longevity traits. The knowledge of the genetic correlations among productive and functional traits of interest, including fighting ability, is important in animal breeding for a sustainable genetic improvement.
在竞赛中取得成功可能会给动物带来压力，并且在免疫功能和寿命方面付出代价。本研究以奥索塔栗色牛和奥索塔黑花牛为研究对象，它们因在传统竞赛中的战斗能力而被选中，研究了战斗能力与乳房健康性状（体细胞评分和体细胞两个阈值性状）、寿命（生产寿命和产犊数）和测试日牛奶、脂肪和蛋白质产量之间的遗传关系。本研究使用了 16 年来常规收集的种畜记录和表型记录来研究上述性状。数据属于 9328 头奶牛和 19283 头动物的系谱。使用 Gibbs 抽样算法对单性状动物模型进行分析，以估计性状的方差分量，然后进行双变量分析，以估计遗传相关性。战斗能力与体细胞评分之间存在中度正遗传相关（ra=0.255），这表明更大的战斗能力与乳房健康状况恶化在遗传上有关，这与理论相符。战斗能力与寿命之间存在高度正遗传相关（平均 ra=0.669），这表明战斗能力的经济重要性（获胜的奶牛在销售时价格更高）可能掩盖了真实的遗传协方差。产奶性状与战斗能力之间的遗传相关性显示出较大的间隔，但负值（平均 ra=-0.121）与之前的研究一致。本研究是关于竞争成功与免疫功能和寿命性状的遗传相关性的少数实证研究之一。了解包括战斗能力在内的有价值的生产和功能性状之间的遗传相关性，在可持续遗传改良的动物育种中非常重要。
