Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:23:44.641Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Genetic relationship among reproductive traits in Nellore cattle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2014

A. R. Guarini ,
H. H. R. Neves ,
F. S. Schenkel ,
R. Carvalheiro ,
J. A. Oliveira  and
S. A. Queiroz
A. R. Guarini*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Zootecnia, FCAV-Univ Estadual Paulista, Via de acesso Prof. Paulo Donato Castellane, s/n, Jaboticabal, SP 14884-900, Brazil
H. H. R. Neves
Affiliation:
Departamento de Zootecnia, FCAV-Univ Estadual Paulista, Via de acesso Prof. Paulo Donato Castellane, s/n, Jaboticabal, SP 14884-900, Brazil
F. S. Schenkel
Affiliation:
Department of Animal and Poultry Science, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East – building 70, Guelph, ON, Canada N1G 2W1
R. Carvalheiro
Affiliation:
Departamento de Zootecnia, FCAV-Univ Estadual Paulista, Via de acesso Prof. Paulo Donato Castellane, s/n, Jaboticabal, SP 14884-900, Brazil
J. A. Oliveira
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciências Exatas, FCAV-Univ Estadual Paulista, Via de acesso Prof. Paulo Donato Castellane, s/n, Jaboticabal, SP 14884-900, Brazil
S. A. Queiroz
Affiliation:
Departamento de Zootecnia, FCAV-Univ Estadual Paulista, Via de acesso Prof. Paulo Donato Castellane, s/n, Jaboticabal, SP 14884-900, Brazil
*
†E-mail: alinerg88@gmail.com
Get access

Abstract

In order to achieve improvements in production efficiency in livestock, herds of high sexual precocity and good fertility are needed. These traits increase the availability of animals in herd, either for sale or selection, allowing both greater selective intensity and greater genetic progress. This study aimed at estimating genetic parameters for reproductive traits measured directly in females in order to verify whether they could be used as selection criteria for genetic improvement in Nellore cows, as well as estimating the genetic relationship among these traits and scrotal circumference (SC), the traditional selection criterion for sexual precocity in cattle. In addition to SC, stayability (STAY), number of calvings at 53 months (NC53) and heifers rebreeding (HR) were studied. The (co)variances and genetic parameters were estimated using Bayesian inference. STAY, NC53 and HR were analyzed assuming a threshold model, whereas SC was analyzed with a linear model. Heritability estimated for NC53 was 0.22, and this trait was strongly and positively correlated with STAY, meaning selection for NC53 would improve productive longevity of Nellore cows. Correlations estimated between HR and STAY (≈0.97) and between HR and NC53 (≈0.99) allow an improvement on HR rates if selection was applied to traits related to longevity. Genetic correlations among SC and female reproductive traits were positive but weak, suggesting the need to use reproductive traits directly measured in females in order to obtain greater improvements in sexual precocity and longevity.

Keywords

Bayesian inferencebeef cattleheritabilityreproductive efficiencythreshold model
Type
Research Article
Information
animal , Volume 9 , Issue 5 , May 2015 , pp. 760 - 765
Copyright
© The Animal Consortium 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barrozo, D, Buzanskas, ME, Oliveira, JA, Munari, DP, Neves, HHR and Queiroz, SA 2012. Genetic parameters and environmental effects on temperament score and reproductive traits of Nellore cattle. Animal 6, 36–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boligon, AA and Albuquerque, LG 2012. Genetic parameters and relationships between heifers rebreeding and hip height in Nellore cattle. Revista Brasileira de Zootecnia 41, 598–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caetano, SL, Rosa, GJM, Savegnago, RP, Ramos, SB, Bezerra, LAF, Lôbo, RB, De Paz, CCP and Munari, DP 2013. Characterization of the variable cow’s age at last calving as a measurement of longevity by using the kaplan-meier estimator and the cox model. Animal 7, 540–546.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ducrocq, V, Quaas, RL, Pollak, EJ and Casella, G 1988. Length of productive life of dairy cows. 2. Variance component estimation and sire evaluation. Journal of Dairy Science 71, 3070–3079.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eler, JP, Santana Júnior, ML and Ferraz, JBS 2010. Seleção para precocidade sexual e produtividade da fêmea em bovinos de corte. Estudos 39, 227–235.Google Scholar
Falconer, DS and Mackay, FC 1996. Introduction to quantitative genetics, 4th edition. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, Scotland.Google Scholar
Gensys 2014. Gensys Consultores associados S/C Ltda. Retrieved April 9, 2014, from http://www.gensys.com.br/.Google Scholar
Geweke, J 1992. Evaluating the accuracy of sampling-based approaches to calculating posterior moments. In Bayesian statistics 4 (ed. JM Bernardo, JO Berger, AP Dawid and AFM Smith), pp. 5–11. Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK.Google Scholar
Gianola, D 1979. Heritability of polychotomous characters. Genetics 93, 1051–1055.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gianola, D and Foulley, JL 1983. Sire evaluation for ordered categorical data with a threshold model. Genetics Selection Evolution 15, 201–224.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heidelberg, P and Welch, PD 1983. Simulation run length control in the presence of an initial transient. Operations Research 31, 1109–1144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, CR 1975. Best linear unbiased estimation and prediction under a selection model. Biometrics 31, 423–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudson, GFS and Van Vleck, LD 1981. Relationship between production and stayability in holstein cattle. Journal of Dairy Science 64, 2246–2250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jamrozik, J, McGrath, S, Kemp, RA and Miller, SP 2013. Estimates of genetic parameters for stayability to consecutive calvings of canadian simmentals by random regression models. Journal of Animal Science 91, 3634–3643.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martinez, GE, Koch, RM, Cundiff, LV, Gregory, KE, Kachman, SD and Van Vleck, LD 2005. Genetic parameters for stayability, stayability at calving, and stayability at weaning to specified ages for hereford cows. Journal of Animal Science 83, 2033–2042.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Misztal, I 2010. BLUPF90 family of programs. Retrieved May 18, 2013 from http://nce.ads.uga.edu/~ignancy/ newprograms.html.Google Scholar
Neves, HHR, Carvalheiro, R and Queiroz, SA 2012. Genetic parameters for an alternative criterion to improve productive longevity of Nellore cows. Journal of Animal Science 90, 4209–4216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pereira, MC 2008. Avaliação genética da reconcepção de fêmeas primíparas da raça Nelore. PhD thesis, Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho”, Jaboticabal, Brazil.Google Scholar
Phocas, F and Laloe, D 2004. Genetic parameters for birth and weaning traits in french specialized beef cattle breeds. Livestock Production Science 89, 121–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
R Development Core Team 2013. R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Retrieved July 6, 2013, from http://www.R-project.org/.Google Scholar
Rasali, DP, Crow, GH, Shrestha, JNB, Kennedy, AD and Brûlé-Babel, A 2005. Genetic association between cows’ stayability to three years of age and juvenile growth traits in Canadian angus herds. Canadian Journal of Animal Science 85, 139–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santana, ML, Eler, JP, Ferraz, JBS and Mattos, EC 2012. Genetic relationship between growth and reproductive traits in Nellore cattle. Animal 6, 565–570.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, BJ 2005. Bayesian Output Analysis Program (BOA), Version 1.1.5. University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA,. Retrieved September 26, 2013, from http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/BOA/.Google Scholar
Statistical Analysis System-SAS 2002. SAS OnlineDoc® 9. SAS Institute Inc, Cary, NC.Google Scholar
Thompson, R 1979. Sire evaluation. Biometrics 35, 339–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Melis, MH, Oliveira, HN, Eler, JP, Ferraz, JB, Casellas, J and Varona, L 2010. Additive genetic relationship of longevity with fertility and production traits in Nellore cattle based on bivariate models. Genetics and Molecular Research 9, 176–187.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Melis, MH, Eler, JP, Oliveira, HN, Rosa, GJ, Silva, JA II, Ferraz, JB and Pereira, E 2007. Study of stayability in Nellore cows using a threshold model. Journal of Animal Science 85, 1780–1786.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Westell, RA, Quaas, RL and Van Vleck, LD 1988. Genetic groups in an animal model. Journal of Dairy Science 71, 1310–1318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar