• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• 제19권5호
• /
• pp.627-631
• /
• 2006

The objective of this study was to evaluate the association of genetic differences in the bovine leptin gene and milk yield, reproduction, body condition score (BCS), and plasma glucose level in Iranian Holstein cows. In total, two hundred and thirty eight cows were used and genotyped for a restricted fragment length polymorphism at the leptin gene locus. Two genotypes, AA and AB, have been distinguished which have the frequencies of 0.89 and 0.11, respectively. The genotypes were distributed according to the Hardy - Weinberg equilibrium ($x^2$ = 0.733). During the first 12 wk of lactation, milk yield and composition, live weight, BCS and plasma glucose were measured in 50 cows. Data were analyzed based on a repeated measures ANOVA. During this period, milk yield and composition, live weight, BCS and plasma glucose level were similar among the genotypes. The first cumulative 60-d milk yield, 305-d milk yield, days to first breeding, days open and days from first breeding to conception using previous lactation records were also analyzed using Standard Least Square within mixed models. Fixed effects were year, season, parity and age at calving, and sire. For the reproductive traits the cumulative first 60-d milk yield was also added to the model. Animal was fitted as a random effect. A significant association was detected between the RFLP-AB genotype and 305-d milk yield (p<0.05). The first 60-d cumulative milk yield was similar for the two genotypes (p = 0.21) and tended to be higher in the heterozygous cows. The heterozygous genotypes at the above mentioned locus had a trend to better reproductive performance than the homozygous. The results demonstrate that the RFLP B-allele can yield a higher 305-d milk production with a trend to better reproductive performance.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• 제17권2호
• /
• pp.153-158
• /
• 2004

Data containing 14,188 lactation and reproductive records of Korean Holstein cows at first parity distributed across 3,734 herd-year-season groups were analyzed to get genetic (co)variance estimates for milk yield, fat yield, calving ease, and days open. Milk and Fat yields were adjusted to 305 d. Heritabilities and genetic correlations were estimated in two different animal models on which were included direct genetic effects (Model 1) and direct+maternal genetic effects (Model 2) using REML algorithms. Milk and fat yields were affected by age at first calving as linear and quadratic. Heritability estimates of direct effects were 0.25 for milk yield, 0.17 for fat yield, 0.03 for calving ease and 0.03 for days open in Model 2. These estimates for maternal effects were 0.05, 0.08, 0.04 and less than 0.01 for each corresponding trait. Milk productions at first lactation were to show genetically favorable correlation with calving ease and days open for direct genetic effects (-0.24 - -0.11). Moreover, calving ease was correlated with days open of 0.30 for direct genetic effects. Correlations between direct and maternal effects for each trait were negatively correlated (-0.63 - -0.32). This study suggested that maternal additive genetic variance would be not ignorable for genetic evaluation of milk production as well as reproductive traits such as calving ease and days open at first parity. Furthermore, difficult calving would genetically influence the next conception.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• 제14권6호
• /
• pp.747-753
• /
• 2001

In this study, the Italian milk recorded buffalo population from 1974 to 1996 was analysed with the purpose to estimate genetic and environmental variability and provide genetic parameters for the most important economic traits. High variability between herds was evident due to the poor knowledge of feeding requirements and husbandry technology in this species compared to cattle. Age at first calving was reduced by 57 days during the considered years following efforts made in better feeding and management from 1990; on the contrary, calving interval has increased by 17 days as a consequence of forcing buffaloes to calve in spring, in order to have the peak milk yield when milk is much better paid. Average milk yield increased by 1853 kg during these years, while lactation duration was reduced by 30 days. Season of calving has no effect on all traits. Calving order has a positive effect on milk yield especially because older cows produce more milk in shorter lactations. Heritability for the age at first calving and calving interval was 0.26 and 0.05 respectively. Heritability of productive traits, milk yield and duration of the lactation was 0.19 and 0.13 respectively, with repeatabilities of 0.40 and 0.26. Genetic trend for milk yield was 2.1 kg milk/year for the bulls and 1 kg for all population. The high genetic variability of milk production as well as duration of the lactation, indicates that there are good opportunities for genetic improvement when including these traits in a selection scheme. The low genetic trend registered over 15 years of recording activity can be explained by the fact that neither progeny testing was performed or selection schemes were implemented, due to the difficulties to use artificial insemination in buffalo.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• 제16권9호
• /
• pp.1285-1290
• /
• 2003

The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of test day milk yield, test day evening milk yield, parity, stage of lactation and body weight on milk urea and milk protein concentration. A total of 319 milk samples was collected from buffaloes over four month's period and subjected to urea and protein analysis. Milk urea concentration (mg/dl) was significantly (p<0.01) increased with increasing test day milk yield. The lowest value ($57.03{\pm}1.13$) was observed in the milk yield group ${\leq}4.5kg/day$ and the highest value ($64.15{\pm}1.13$) in the group 7.7-10.7 kg/day. However, test day evening milk yield had no significant effect on milk urea concentration. Milk protein did not vary significantly with the test day milk yield as well as test day evening milk yield. A clear decreasing trend of milk urea concentration (mg/dl) was found with the increasing parity. The highest MU concentration ($64.03{\pm}1.14$) was found in the first parity and the lowest ($55.67{\pm}1.22$) was found in the sixth and above parity. Whereas, stage of lactation had no effect on milk urea concentration. Moreover, parity and stage of lactation did not have any significant effect on milk protein concentration. Body weight (kg) was also found negatively (p<0.05) related with urea content (mg/dl) in milk. The highest mean MU concentration ($64.34{\pm}0.88$) was found when body weight was between 532 and 598 kg and lower mean values ($59.24{\pm}0.94$ and $59.33{\pm}1.23$) were observed in 599 to 665 kg and ${\geq}666kg$ group. Body weight also had significant (p<0.05) effect on milk protein content. The highest milk protein content (%) was found in ${\geq}666kg$ group and the lowest in <531 kg group. In conclusion, for proper interpretation of milk urea values to monitor protein nutrition status of the buffaloes parity, milk yield and body weight should be considered.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• 제19권9호
• /
• pp.1252-1256
• /
• 2006

This study estimated the effects of parity (1-3) and stage of lactation (early, mid and late) on daily milk yield (DMY), somatic cell score (SCS), milk urea nitrogen (MUN), blood glucose, and immunoglobulin G (IgG), their heritabilities and genetic correlations between them in Holsteins (n = 200). Means and standard deviations of DMY, SCS, MUN, blood glucose, and IgG in the experimental herd were $23.35{\pm}7.75kg$, $3.81{\pm}2.00$, $13.99{\pm}5.68mg/dl$, $44.91{\pm}13.12mg/dl$, and $30.36{\pm}6.72mg/ml$, respectively. DMY was the lowest in first parity, and in late lactation. SCS increased with parity; however, it was lowest in mid-lactation. MUN was lowest in first parity, and no difference was noted across stage of lactation. Blood glucose was similar between parities, however the highest blood glucose was observed during mid lactation. IgG level was significantly different between first and second parity; however, stage of lactation did not affect its level. Heritability of DMY was 0.16. Its genetic correlations with SCS and with blood glucose were -0.67 and 0.98, respectively. Heritability of SCS was 0.15. Genetic correlations of SCS with MUN, glucose, and IgG were -0.72, -0.59, and 0.68, respectively. Heritability of MUN was estimated to be 0.39 and had a genetic correlation of -0.35 with IgG. Heritabilities of blood glucose and IgG were 0.21 and 0.33, respectively. This study suggested that MUN, blood glucose and IgG could be considered important traits in future dairy selection programs to improve milk yield and its quality with better animal health and welfare. However, further studies are necessary involving more records to clarify the relationship between metabolic and immunological traits with DMY and its quality.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• 제7권2호
• /
• pp.261-264
• /
• 1994

The lactation milk yields of 209 buffaloes and cattle were measured on farms in Taplejung and Dhankuta Districts in East Nepal. This includes local and crossbred buffaloes and cows. The average milk yield (${\pm}\;SD$) of 97 local buffaloes was $833\;{\pm}\;94.6\;kg$ whereas that for 83 local cows was only $455\;{\pm}\;61.5\;kg$. The milk yield of buffaloes decreased with number of calvings, but that for the cows increased. The milk yields of 18 Murrah crossbreds were on average 215 kg higher than the yields of local buffaloes, and the yields of 11 Jersey crossbred cows averaged 247 kg more than the local cows. Lactation length (${\pm}\;SD$) which averaged $326\;{\pm}\;100$ days for the buffaloes and $292\;{\pm}\;98$ days for the cows, was not affected by crossbreeding. The milk yields of the crossbreds were more variable than the local buffaloes and cows. In addition to milk yield the overall productivity of a milking animal depends on calf mortality, age at first calving, calving interval, longevity, food intake, the work performance of male cattle and the meat production of male buffaloes. Among these parameters, the work performance of Jersey crossbred and local male cattle was studied later. However, other factors could not be measured.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• 제19권11호
• /
• pp.1551-1555
• /
• 2006

This study was carried out to investigate the use of three different mathematical models (Wood, Quadratic and Cubic) for describing the lactation curve of Akkaraman ewes. Data were collected from 42 ewes that were three years of age and from the same flock raised in The State Farm of $G{\ddot{o}}zl{\ddot{u}}$ in Konya Province. All ewes lambed in March. They were hand milked twice daily and the first milk test was performed with in the first month after lambing (mean = 27.8 day, SD = 4.26) in an attempt to describe the peak yield. The differences between estimated total milk yields by the models were not significant. The models were adequate for describing total milk yield. The differences between peak yields were not significant. The Wood model estimated the time of peak yield earlier than the other models and observed values (p<0.01). Especially the Cubic model's peak time was very close to really peak time (34.30 vs. 35.33 days). $R^2$ values of the models ranged from 85.85% to 96.20%. The Cubic model gave the best $R^2$ value (p<0.01). Correlation coefficients between descriptive values of the models changed from 0.32 to 1.00. Total milk yields of the models were highly correlated (above 0.99) with the total milk yield calculated by the Fleischmann method (p<0.01). As a result the Cubic model showed the best fit to the data collected from Akkaraman ewes and allowed a suitable description of the shape of the lactation curve.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• 제13권9호
• /
• pp.1196-1200
• /
• 2000

First lactation records of 683 Murrah buffaloes maintained at National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, were used for comparing the sire evaluation for age at first calving, first lactation 305-day or less milk yield and first service period. The sires were evaluated using Simple daughters average, Contemporary comparison, Least-squares and BLUP methods. The BLUP evaluations were obtained under single-, two- and three-trait individual animal models. The results revealed that for taking a decision regarding the method of sire evaluation to be used for selecting sires with high breeding values, criteria of the rank correlation could be misleading and comparison of the selected sires is likely to give a veritable picture. The Best Linear Unbiased Prediction method under multi-trait animal model incorporating first lactation milk yield with first service period as a covariable and age at first calving in the model was found to be more efficient and accurate for sire selection in Murrah buffaloes.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• 제29권5호
• /
• pp.607-614
• /
• 2016

The objectives of the study were to estimate genetic parameters for milk production traits of Holstein cattle using random regression models (RRMs), and to compare the goodness of fit of various RRMs with homogeneous and heterogeneous residual variances. A total of 126,980 test-day milk production records of the first parity Holstein cows between 2007 and 2014 from the Dairy Cattle Improvement Center of National Agricultural Cooperative Federation in South Korea were used. These records included milk yield (MILK), fat yield (FAT), protein yield (PROT), and solids-not-fat yield (SNF). The statistical models included random effects of genetic and permanent environments using Legendre polynomials (LP) of the third to fifth order (L3-L5), fixed effects of herd-test day, year-season at calving, and a fixed regression for the test-day record (third to fifth order). The residual variances in the models were either homogeneous (HOM) or heterogeneous (15 classes, HET15; 60 classes, HET60). A total of nine models (3 orders of $polynomials{\times}3$ types of residual variance) including L3-HOM, L3-HET15, L3-HET60, L4-HOM, L4-HET15, L4-HET60, L5-HOM, L5-HET15, and L5-HET60 were compared using Akaike information criteria (AIC) and/or Schwarz Bayesian information criteria (BIC) statistics to identify the model(s) of best fit for their respective traits. The lowest BIC value was observed for the models L5-HET15 (MILK; PROT; SNF) and L4-HET15 (FAT), which fit the best. In general, the BIC values of HET15 models for a particular polynomial order was lower than that of the HET60 model in most cases. This implies that the orders of LP and types of residual variances affect the goodness of models. Also, the heterogeneity of residual variances should be considered for the test-day analysis. The heritability estimates of from the best fitted models ranged from 0.08 to 0.15 for MILK, 0.06 to 0.14 for FAT, 0.08 to 0.12 for PROT, and 0.07 to 0.13 for SNF according to days in milk of first lactation. Genetic variances for studied traits tended to decrease during the earlier stages of lactation, which were followed by increases in the middle and decreases further at the end of lactation. With regards to the fitness of the models and the differential genetic parameters across the lactation stages, we could estimate genetic parameters more accurately from RRMs than from lactation models. Therefore, we suggest using RRMs in place of lactation models to make national dairy cattle genetic evaluations for milk production traits in Korea.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• 제11권3호
• /
• pp.311-317
• /
• 1998

A total of 1033 Brown Swiss and 610 Canadienne cows were phenotyped for the genetic variants ${\alpha}_{s1}$-casein, ${\beta}$-casein, ${\kappa}$-casein, ${\beta}$-lactoglobulin and ${\alpha}$-lactalbumin. In Brown Swiss, frequency distributions were: 97.3% B and 2.7% C variant of ${\alpha}_{s1}$-casein; 31.6% $A^1$, 51.8% $A^2$, 0.5% $A^3$ and 16.1% B variant of ${\beta}$-casein; 70.4% A, 29.3% B, and 0.3% C variant of ${\kappa}$-casein; 41.7% A and 58.3% B variant of ${\beta}$-lactoglobulin; and 100% B variant of ${\alpha}$-lactalbumin. Corresponding frequencies in Canadienne for those five milk proteins were: 98.6 and 1.4%;58.5, 33.5, 0.08 and 7.9%; 78.8, 21.1 and 0.1%, 42.4 and 57.6%; and 100%. Analysis of variance by least squares showed possible association between milk protein phenotypes and some lactational production traits. There were no significant association of phenotypes of ${\alpha}_{s1}$-casein, ${\beta}$-casein and ${\beta}$-lactoglobulin with milk yield, fat yield, protein yield, fat percentage and protein percentage in both breeds during the three lactations. In the Brown Swiss, ${\kappa}$-casein phenotype was associated with 305-day fat yield and protein yield during the first lactation. ${\kappa}$-Casein AB was associated with higher milk, fat and protein yield during the second lactation. During the third lactation, ${\beta}$-lactoglobulin AA in Canadienne cows was associated with higher protein content in the milk (3.70%) when compared to phenotypes AB (3.54%) and BB (3.64%).