Estimation of genetic variation for macro- and micro-environmental sensitivities of milk yield and composition in Holstein cows using double hierarchical generalized linear models

2019 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamshid Ehsaninia ◽  
Navid Ghavi Hossein-Zadeh ◽  
Abdol Ahad Shadparvar

AbstractThe aim of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for environmental sensitivities in milk yield and composition of Iranian Holstein cows using the double hierarchical generalized linear model (DHGLM) method. Data set included test-day productive records of cows which were provided by the Animal Breeding Center and Promotion of Animal Products of Iran during 1983 to 2014. In the DHGLM method, a random regression model was fitted which included two parts of mean and residual variance. A random regression model (mean model) and a residual variance model were used to study the genetic variation of micro-environmental sensitivities. In order to consider macro-environmental sensitivities, DHGLM was extended using a reaction norm model, and a sire model was applied. Based on the mean model, additive genetic variances for the mean were 38.25 for milk yield, 0.23 for fat yield and 0.03 for protein yield in the first lactation, respectively. Based on the residual variance model, additive genetic variances for residual variance were 0.039 for milk yield, 0.030 for fat yield and 0.020 for protein yield in the first lactation, respectively. Estimates of genetic correlation between milk yield and macro- and micro-environmental sensitivities were 0.660 and 0.597 in the first lactation, respectively. The results of this study indicated that macro- and micro-environmental sensitivities were present for milk production traits of Iranian Holsteins. High genetic coefficient of variation for micro-environmental sensitivities indicated the possibility of reducing environmental variation and increase in uniformity via selection.

Author(s):  
Rodrigo Junqueira Pereira ◽  
Denise Rocha Ayres ◽  
Mário Luiz Santana Junior ◽  
Lenira El Faro ◽  
Aníbal Eugênio Vercesi Filho ◽  
...  

Abstract: The objective of this work was to compare genetic evaluations of milk yield in the Gir breed, in terms of breeding values and their accuracy, using a random regression model applied to test-day records or the traditional model (TM) applied to estimates of 305-day milk yield, as well as to predict genetic trends for parameters of interest. A total of 10,576 first lactations, corresponding to 81,135 test-day (TD) records, were used. Rank correlations between the breeding values (EBVs) predicted with the two models were 0.96. The percentage of animals selected in common was 67 or 82%, respectively, when 1 or 5% of bulls were chosen, according to EBVs from random regression model (RRM) or TM genetic evaluations. Average gains in accuracy of 2.7, 3.0, and 2.6% were observed for all animals, cows with yield record, and bulls (sires of cows with yield record), respectively, when the RRM was used. The mean annual genetic gain for 305-day milk yield was 56 kg after 1993. However, lower increases in the average EBVs were observed for the second regression coefficient, related to persistency. The RRM applied to TD records is efficient for the genetic evaluation of milk yield in the Gir dairy breed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 1022 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Prakash ◽  
A. K. Gupta ◽  
A. Gupta ◽  
R. S. Gandhi ◽  
A. Singh ◽  
...  

The random regression test-day models can accelerate the genetic improvement of Sahiwal cattle as test-day milk yield models offer a faster, accurate and economical approach of genetic evaluation. First three lactation monthly test-day records of Sahiwal cows calved between 1961 and 2012 at ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal were used to fit random regression model (RRM) with various order of legendre polynomial, and a constant (RRM-HOM) or heterogeneous residual variance (RRM-HET). For both RRM-HOM and RRM-HET third order legendre polynomial for modelling additive genetic effects were found best. There was reduction in order of fit for modelling permanent environmental effects due to assumption of heterogeneous residual variance, as legendre polynomial of sixth order for RRM-HOM and fourth or fifth order for RRM-HET was found to be best, for modelling the permanent environmental effect. First two eigenvalues of additive genetic random regression coefficient matrix explained more than 99% of the additive genetic variation, whereas four eigenvalues explained ~98% of the permanent environment variations. First eigenfunction from both the models did not show any large change along lactation, suggesting most variation can be explained by genes that act in same way during lactation. The heritability estimates were generally low but moderate for some test-day milk yields, and it ranged from 0.007 to 0.088 for first, 0.044 to 0.279 for second, and 0.089 to 0.129 for third lactation from RRM-HOM. The values of genetic correlation between test-day milk yields ranged from 0.06 to 0.99 for first, 0.77 to 0.99 for second, and 0.07 to 0.99 for third lactation, from RRM-HOM. The value of permanent environment correlation ranged from 0.30 to 0.98 for first, 0.07 to 0.99 for second, and 0.16 to 0.98 for third lactation. The genetic correlations between two adjacent test-days were high (≥0.90). RRM-HET also gave similar heritability and correlation estimates. The rank correlation between sire breeding values for first, second, and third lactation, estimated using two models were 0.98, 1.00, and 0.99, respectively, indicating there was no difference in the ranking of animals using two models. Thus the random regression model with lower order of polynomial for modelling additive genetic effect and higher order polynomial for modelling animal permanent environmental effect was found suitable for genetic evaluation and both RRM-HOM and RRM-HET can be used for modelling test-day milk yield and breeding value prediction in Sahiwal cattle.


2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (8) ◽  
pp. 1438
Author(s):  
Y. Fazel ◽  
A. Esmailizadeh ◽  
M. Momen ◽  
M. Asadi Fozi

Changes in the relative performance of genotypes (sires) across different environments, which are referred to as genotype–environment interactions, play an important role in dairy production systems, especially in countries that rely on imported genetic material. Importance of genotype by environment interaction on genetic analysis of milk yield was investigated in Holstein cows by using random regression model. In total, 68945 milk test-day records of first, second and third lactations of 8515 animals that originated from 100 sires and 7743 dams in 34 herds, collected by the Iranian animal breeding centre during 2007–2009, were used. The different sires were considered as different genotypes, while factors such as herd size, herd milk average (HMA), herd protein average and herd fat average were used as criteria to define the different environments. The inclusion of the environmental descriptor improved not only the log-likelihood of the model, but also the Bayesian information criterion. The results showed that defining the environment on the basis of HMA affected genetic parameter estimations more than did the other environmental descriptors. The heritability of milk yield during lactating days reduced when sire × HMA was fitted to the model as an additional random effect, while the genetic and phenotypic correlations between lactating months increased. Therefore, ignoring this interaction term can lead to the biased genetic-parameter estimates, reduced selection accuracy and, thus, different ranking of the bulls in different environments.


2014 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khabat Kheirabadi ◽  
Sadegh Alijani

Abstract. For genetic dissection of milk, fat, and protein production traits in the Iranian primiparous Holstein dairy cattle, records of these traits were analysed using a multitrait random regression test-day model. Data set included 763 505 test-day records from 88 204 cows calving since 1993. The (co)variance components were estimated by Bayesian method. The obtained results indicated that as in case of genetic correlations within traits, genetic correlations between traits decrease as days in milk (DIM) got further apart. The strength of the correlations decreased with increasing DIM, especially between milk and fat. Heritability estimates for 305-d milk, fat, and protein yields were 0.31, 0.29, and 0.29, respectively. Heritabilities of test-day milk, fat, and protein yields for selected DIM were higher in the end than at the beginning or the middle of lactation. Heritabilities for persistency ranged from 0.02 to 0.24 and were generally highest for protein yield (0.05 to 0.24) and lowest for fat yield (0.02 to 0.17), with milk yield having intermediate values (0.06 to 0.22). Genetic correlations between persistency measures and 305-d production were higher for protein and milk yield than for fat yield. The genetic correlation of the same persistency measures between milk and fat yields averaged 0.76, and between milk and protein yields averaged 0.82.


2002 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Mrode ◽  
G. J. T. Swanson ◽  
C. M. Lindberg

AbstractThe efficiency of part lactation test day (TD) records in first parity for the genetic evaluation of bulls and cows using a random regression model (RRM) and a fixed regression model (FRM) was studied, modelling the random and fixed lactation curves by Legendre polynomials. The data set consisted of 9 242 783 TD records for first lactation milk yield of 1 134 042 Holstein Friesian heifers. The efficiency of both models with part lactation TD records was examined by comparing predicted transmitting abilities (PTAs) for 305-day milk yield for 114 bulls and their 4697 daughters, from analyses where the maximum number of TD records of these daughters was restricted to the initial 2, 4 or 6 TDs with those estimated from 10 TDs. The correlations of PTAs estimated from 2, 4 or 6 TDs with those from 10 TDs computed for cows and bulls within each model were very similar. A rank correlation of 0·91 (0·92 FRM) was obtained for cows between PTAs based on 2 TDs and those from 10 TDs. The correlation increased to 0·96 with 4 TDs and 0·98 with 6 TDs. For bulls, correlations between PTAs estimated from 4 or 6 TDs with those estimated from 10 TDs were high at 0·98 and 0·99 respectively. With 2 TDs, the correlation was 0·95. The average under-prediction of PTAs with 2, 4 or 6 TDs relative to 10 TDs was generally higher and more variable with a FRM compared with a RRM for highly persistent cows and bulls. A similar trend was observed for mean over-prediction of PTAs, except for the initial predictions based on 2 TDs when the RRM gave a higher mean over-prediction for bulls and their daughters with low persistency but high initial TD records. The range of over and under-predictions were large (up to 200 kg milk) for some bulls when only 2 TDs were included in both models. A moderate correlation of 0·64 was obtained between persistency evaluations estimated from 10 TDs with those estimated from 2 TDs. The correlation increased to 0·71 with 4 TDs included and 0·85 with 6 TDs. The moderately high correlation between 6 TDs and 10 TDs of 0·85 was unexpected given the high correlation of 0·99 between PTAs for yield estimated from 6TDs with those estimated from 10 TDs.


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