Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2021, Vol. 52 ›› Issue (4): 954-966.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2021.04.011

• ANIMAL GENETICS AND BREEDING • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Genetic Parameter Estimates and Principal Component Analysis for Udder Traits of Holstein Cattle in Ningxia

MU Tong1, HU Honghong1, FENG Xiaofang1, TIAN Jia2, WEN Wan2, ZHANG Juan1, GU Yaling1*   

  1. 1. School of Agriculture, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China;
    2. Animal Husbandry Extension Station, Yinchuan 750001, China
  • Received:2020-08-31 Online:2021-04-23 Published:2021-04-25

Abstract: This study aimed to evaluate the genetic level of the udder traits of Holstein cattle in Ningxia. The DMU software, the DMUAI module AI-REML, the EM algorithm and multi-trait animal models were used to estimate the genetic parameters of 12 415 Holstein cows in Ningxia, including 111 735 observed values of 9 udder traits. The principal component analysis was applied to explore the relationship between the conformation traits. The results showed that heritability of udder traits of Holstein cattle in Ningxia was at a moderate to inferior level: the values were 0.242 for udder depth, 0.080 for udder texture, 0.183 for median suspensory, 0.230 for fore udder attachment, 0.231 for fore teat placement, 0.173 for fore teat length, 0.272 for rear attachment height, 0.378 for rear attachment width and 0.169 for rear teat placement, respectively. The genetic correlation coefficients ranged from -0.277 to 0.706, while the phenotypic cor-relation coefficients ranged from -0.084 to 0.316. Furthermore, we selected 4 principal components with eigenvalues ≥ 1, 64.19% of the total variance. In addition, all 9 udder traits were reflected in the first 3 principal components, and all loaded coefficients were > 0.4. The present in-depth Dairy Herd Improvement data mining and genetic parameter estimation revealed the characteristics of Ningxia Holstein dairy cow population structure, which may greatly facilitate the design and execution of dairy cow breeding programs.

Key words: Holstein dairy cow, heritability, udder, breeding value

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