<b>Genetic analysis of fertility traits of Holstein dairy cattle in warm and temperate climate

Abstract

The edited data set for the estimation of heritability, genetic and phenotypic correlations of fertility traits contained up to 23,402 records from 10,894 cows calved between 2001 and 2015. Heritability estimates for success in first service (FS), gestation length (GL), number of inseminations (NI), insemination outcome (IO), calving interval (CI), calving birth weight (CBW) and days open (DO) were low and ranged between 0.016 (DO) and 0.123 (GL). Repeatability of fertility traits was estimated to vary from 0.021 (FS) to 0.411 (IO). The genetic correlations between DO × CI, DO × NI and CI × NI were positive and nearly perfect (0.98, 0.88 and 0.88, respectively), while those between DO × IO and CI × IO were negative (-0.98 and -1, respectively). Further, the phenotypic correlations between DO × CI, DO × NI, CI × NI, CBW × IO and SF × IO were 0.99, 0.83, 0.83, 0.99 and 1, respectively, while those between DO × IO, CI × IO, GL × IO and NI × IO were -0.99, -0.99, -0.99 and -1, respectively. Overall genetic parameters imply a good practical management in heat stress conditions will be essential for improving fertility efficiency.

Keywords

• heritability
• repeatability
• genetic correlation
• phenotypic correlation
• heat stress.