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Genetic correlation of longevity with growth, post-mortem, docility and some morphological traits in the Pirenaica beef cattle breed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2011

L. Varona ,
C. Moreno  and
J. Altarriba
L. Varona*
Affiliation:
Unidad de Genética Cuantitativa y Mejora Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Zaragoza, C. Miguel Servet 177, 50013 Zaragoza, Spain
C. Moreno
Affiliation:
Unidad de Genética Cuantitativa y Mejora Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Zaragoza, C. Miguel Servet 177, 50013 Zaragoza, Spain
J. Altarriba
Affiliation:
Unidad de Genética Cuantitativa y Mejora Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Zaragoza, C. Miguel Servet 177, 50013 Zaragoza, Spain
*
†E-mail: lvarona@unizar.es
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Abstract

Survival or longevity is an economically relevant trait in cattle. However, it is not currently included in cattle selection criteria because of the delayed recording of phenotypic data and the high computational demand of survival techniques under proportional hazard models. The identification of longevity-correlated traits that can be early registered in lifetime would therefore be very useful for beef cattle selection processes. The aim of this study was to estimate the genetic correlation of survival (SURV) with: growth – birth weight (BW), weight at 120 days (W120), weight at 210 days (W210); carcass – cold carcass weight (CCW), conformation (CON), fatness (FAT) and meat colour (COL); teat morphology – teat thickness (TT), teat length (TL) and udder depth (UD); leg morphology – forward (FL) and backward legs (BL); milk production (MILK) and docility (DOC). In the statistical analysis, SURV was measured in discrete-time intervals and modelled via a sequential threshold model. A series of independent bivariate Bayesian analyses between cow survival and each recorded trait were carried out. The posterior mean estimates (and posterior standard deviation) for the heritability of SURV was 0.05 (0.01); and for the relevant genetic correlations with SURV were 0.07 (0.04), 0.12 (0.05), 0.10 (0.05), 0.15 (0.05), −0.18 (0.06), 0.33 (0.06) and 0.27 (0.15) for BW, W120, W210, CCW, CON, FAT and COL, respectively.

Keywords

beef cattleBayesian analysissurvivalcorrelated response
Type
Full Paper
Information
animal , Volume 6 , Issue 6 , June 2012 , pp. 873 - 879
Copyright
Copyright © The Animal Consortium 2011

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