PLoS ONE (Jan 2013)

Genome wide analysis of fertility and production traits in Italian Holstein cattle.

  • Giulietta Minozzi,
  • Ezequiel L Nicolazzi,
  • Alessandra Stella,
  • Stefano Biffani,
  • Riccardo Negrini,
  • Barbara Lazzari,
  • Paolo Ajmone-Marsan,
  • John L Williams

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080219
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 11
p. e80219

Abstract

Read online

A genome wide scan was performed on a total of 2093 Italian Holstein proven bulls genotyped with 50K single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), with the objective of identifying loci associated with fertility related traits and to test their effects on milk production traits. The analysis was carried out using estimated breeding values for the aggregate fertility index and for each trait contributing to the index: angularity, calving interval, non-return rate at 56 days, days to first service, and 305 day first parity lactation. In addition, two production traits not included in the aggregate fertility index were analysed: fat yield and protein yield. Analyses were carried out using all SNPs treated separately, further the most significant marker on BTA14 associated to milk quality located in the DGAT1 region was treated as fixed effect. Genome wide association analysis identified 61 significant SNPs and 75 significant marker-trait associations. Eight additional SNP associations were detected when SNP located near DGAT1 was included as a fixed effect. As there were no obvious common SNPs between the traits analyzed independently in this study, a network analysis was carried out to identify unforeseen relationships that may link production and fertility traits.