Contents of livestock production science, volume 23

Abstract

The repeatability and heritability of ketosis were estimated using data from 28,277 Finnish Ayrshire cows. A four-trait linear model including community-year, calving age and month, genetic group, and random sire effects was used to describe first and second lactation milk yields and veterinary diagnoses of ketosis. Variance components were estimated using REML. The disease traits were also analyzed with a categorical model including the same effects except that community and year were separate factors. Variance components were estimated with marginal maximum likelihood. Genetic relationships between 339 sires analyzed were included in models. The phenotypic correlation between the first and second lactation was defined as a repeatability of trait. The lactational incidence risk of ketosis was .05 in both the first and the second lactation. Average milk production was 4956 and 5547 kg in the first and second lactations, respectively. Estimates of heritabilities were .09 and .07 for ketosis and .23 and .19 for milk in the first and second lactations, respectively. Genetic correlations between first and second lactation recordings were .64 for ketosis and .93 for milk. Repeatabilities between subsequent lactations were .36 (.13 in linear analysis) for ketosis and .68 for milk. In the first lactation, genetic relationship between milk yield and ketosis was unfavorable, but in the second lactation ketosis and milk yield were genetically and phenotypically unrelated.