Genetic Control of Wellness in Dairy Cattle

Abstract

With increased selection pressure on milk production, many dairy populations are experiencing reduced fertility and disease resistance. Reducing susceptibility to metabolic diseases, such as ketosis, displaced abomasum, retained placenta, metritis, mastitis, and lameness, has long been excluded from genetic improvement programs, due to low heritability of those traits. However, research has shown that using large producer-recorded data, genomic information, and suitable statistical models can result in accurate genomic predictions for metabolic diseases, enabling producers to select animals with improved disease resistance early in life. Improving wellness in dairy herds not only increases economic efficiency of dairy herds, but also improves overall animal welfare as well as product quality and public perception of dairy farming. This chapter describes the development of genomic predictions for wellness traits in Holstein dairy cows in the United States and presents examples of validation of those predictions in commercial dairy populations in the United States and other countries.