Genetic analysis of female fertility traits in beef cattle in the Czech Republic

Authors

  • Zdeňka Veselá Institut of Animal Science, Prague
  • Luboš Vostrý Institut of Animal Science, Prague
  • Alena Svitáková Institut of Animal Science, Prague

Keywords:

female fertility, maternal trait, genetic parameters, beef cattle

Abstract

Database of performance testing (so called field test) of 333 thousands of animals of twelve beef breeds and crosses with dairy and dual-purpose breeds was used for analyse. Data from 1995 to 2013 were used. Three female fertility traits were analysed: age at first calving (AF), calving interval (CI) and lifespan (LS). The genetic parameters were estimated by residual maximum likelihood. Multi-trait animal model with relationship matrix with genetic groups based on the breed was used. For estimation (co)variance components there were 40 033 cows with LS, 35 220 cows with AF and 19 833 cows with CI. All three traits showed moderate heritability (0.23 AF, 0.39 CI, 0.27 LS). Genetic correlations between AF and CI as well as between AF and LS were almost zero (- 0.01 and - 0.02 respectively). Genetic correlation between CI and LS was low negative (- 0.07).

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Published

2013-09-17

Issue

No. 47 (2013): Proceedings of the 2013 Interbull meeting

Section

Articles

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