• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.117-120
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• 1998

Relationships of breeding values of sires for first lactation milk yield with pedigree information or indices were examined to identify the optimal criteria of selecting young dairy bulls for future use in artificial insemination (AI). Records of performance data on 1087 crossbred daughters (Holstein - Friesian, Jersey and Brown Swiss with Hariana) of 147 sires, generated at Livestock Production Research (Cattle and Buffaloes) Farm, IVRI, Izatnagar, U.P., during 1972 - 1995 were used to obtain the estimates of sire's breeding values (EBV) using the Best Linear Unbiased Prediction Procedures. The correlations between young bull's EBV and the dam's first lactation milk yield was non-significantly different from zero. However, the young bull's EBV was negatively and significantly related (r = - 0.275 ; P < 0.05) to the dam's best lactation milk yield, suggesting that the selection of young dairy bulls from high yielding elite dams is not a suitable criteria for genetic improvement. The correlations of sire's and paternal grandsire's EBV's with young bull's EBV were high and positive (0.532, 0.844; P < 0.01). The maternal grandsire's EBV was positively but non-significantly related to grandson's EBV. The pedigree index incorporating dam's milk records and sire's EBV's showed a negative and non-significant correlation with young bull's EBV. However, the correlation of a pedigree index $(I_3)$ combining information on sire's and paternal grand-sire's EBV's with young bull's EBV's was considerably high and positive (0.797; P < 0.01). The regression coefficients of young bull's EBV on pedigree index $I_3$, was higher than those on other pedigree information. These results revealed that there was no advantage in basing selection on dam's performance or maternal grand-sire's EBV and that sire's and paternal grandsire's EBV's were reliable pedigree information for selection of young dairy bulls for future use in AI.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.1402-1406
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• 2007

Thirty pregnant heifers (Jersey, Holstein Friesian and Hariana) were divided into three groups (10 animals/group) according to their stage of pregnancy viz. seven-month (181-210 days) pregnancy (SMP), eight-month (211-240 days) pregnancy (EMP) and nine-month (241-280 days) pregnancy (NMP) group. Time spent in various feeding activities (eating fodder, eating concentrate, standing rumination, sitting rumination and drinking) by each animal in the three pregnant groups was recorded in four different sessions (each session of 24 h per week). The time spent eating concentrate, eating fodder, standing rumination, sitting rumination and drinking was 61.4, 271.3, 84.6, 367.6 and 10.6 min/day, respectively in the SMP group; 52.7, 289.5, 103.3, 345.8 and 9.2 min/day, respectively in the EMP group and 65.0, 277.7, 138.1, 291.0 and 9.8 min/day, respectively in the NMP group. The animals in the EMP group spent significantly (p<0.01) more time on eating fodder and concentrate compared to the animals in SMP and NMP groups. The pregnant heifers preferred rumination in standing posture in comparison to sitting posture. The time spent on standing rumination was significantly higher in the NMP group whereas the time spent on sitting rumination was significantly lower in this group. Except for the sitting rumination activity, all the other activities were predominant in daytime compared to night time; the diurnal variation was significant (p<0.01) for all the activities.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.253-259
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• 1997

Holstein Friesian and Jersey crossbreds are being widely introduced in the state of Gujarat in India. This paper evaluates feeding practices at farm level and examines whether the crossbreds fit into the existing mixed farm systems. Over a period of four years milk-offtake and feeds offered were recorded for 1331 cows at fortnightly intervals. The breed and the amount of concentrates fed contributed most to the variation in milk offtake. The introduction of crossbred cattle has a major impact on smallholder mixed farming systems. Crossbreds produced, on average, 1.8 times more milk than Desi, Gir, and Kankrej cows. They were fed 1.4 times more concentrates, and about 1.2 times more green and dry feeds than local cows. The major limiting constraint is the quality of the roughages offered. Farmers with crossbreds try to adjust their feeding of concentrates according to the needs of their cows. On tribal farms, local cows produced less milk than on non-tribal farms, whereas crossbreds produced the same amount of milk on both tribal and non-tribal farms. Crossbreds fit into the farming systems of both tribal and non-tribal farmers. The differences in agro-climatic characteristics between different areas in Gujarat were not reflected in differences in milk offtakes.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.795-806
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• 2024

Objective: Karan Fries (KF), a high-producing composite cattle was developed through crossing indicine Tharparkar cows with taurine bulls (Holstein Friesian, Brown Swiss, and Jersey), to increase the milk yield across India. This composite cattle population must maintain sufficient genetic diversity for long-term development and breed improvement in the coming years. The level of linkage disequilibrium (LD) measures the influence of population genetic forces on the genomic structure and provides insights into the evolutionary history of populations, while the decay of LD is important in understanding the limits of genome-wide association studies for a population. Effective population size (N_e) which is genomically based on LD accumulated over the course of previous generations, is a valuable tool for e valuation of the genetic diversity and level of inbreeding. The present study was undertaken to understand KF population dynamics through the estimation of N_e and LD for the long-term sustainability of these breeds. Methods: The present study included 96 KF samples genotyped using Illumina HDBovine array to estimate the effective population and examine the LD pattern. The genotype data were also obtained for other crossbreds (Santa Gertrudis, Brangus, and Beefmaster) and Holstein Friesian cattle for comparison purposes. Results: The average LD between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was r² = 0.13 in the present study. LD decay (r² = 0.2) was observed at 40 kb inter-marker distance, indicating a panel with 62,765 SNPs was sufficient for genomic breeding value estimation in KF cattle. The pedigree-based N_e of KF was determined to be 78, while the N_e estimates obtained using LD-based methods were 52 (SNeP) and 219 (genetic optimization for N_e estimation), respectively. Conclusion: KF cattle have an N_e exceeding the FAO's minimum recommended level of 50, which was desirable. The study also revealed significant population dynamics of KF cattle and increased our understanding of devising suitable breeding strategies for long-term sustainable development.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.794-799
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• 2003

A study was conducted on 2102 records of 808 crossbred cows of various genetic groups maintained under 'All India Coordinated Research Project on Cattle' at C C S Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, over 25 years period (1968-1993) with an objective to assess and compare the amount of percent improvement and heterotic effect for different performance traits in various genetic groups produced under this programme. Survivability sharply and significantly declined from 1/2 to $3/4^th$ bred and further from $3/4^th$ to inter-se bred. This may be due to periodic and management differences in addition to the higher level of exotic inheritance and decreased heterotic effect over the filial generations. Jersey and Holstein Friesian crosses among 1/2 breds and their 50% inheritance among $3/4^th$ and inter-se breds had highest improvement and heterosis in reproduction and production traits respectively. Among inter se bred genetic groups, BFH (I) had no recombination loss in SP and CI, while FJH (I), JFH (I) and FBH (I) had on recombination loss in AFC, LY, LL and PE. The crossbreeding of zebu cows with exotic breeds brings about spectacular improvement in comparison to the performance of zebu breed, while conventional selection over several generation would lead to only modest improvement. In addition to additive effect, there was sufficient heterosis in Jersey crosses for reproduction and Holstein Friesian crosses for production performance. Three breed crosses with exotic inheritance between 50 and 75 percent incorporating genes (25 to 50%) from both of these breeds is the best combination for stabilization.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.230-238
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• 2021

This study attempted to determine the characteristic features of postpartum dairy cows during their return to estrus. Moreover, it investigated the effects of abnormal ovarian cycles (AOC) on subsequent reproductive performance and the relationship between normal ovarian cycles (NOC) and the blood urea nitrogen (BUN) level postpartum. Incidentally, 56.3% of the Holstein cows and 66.7% of the Jersey cows had NOC, whereas the 43.7% and 33.3% of the Holstein and Jersey, respectively, had AOC. Within 100 days of calving, the cows with AOC had significantly lower rates of artificial insemination (AI) submission as well as pregnancy and a significantly longer interval to first AI, as compared to that in the cows with NOC. Additionally, the cows with NOC had a significantly higher first AI conception rate than that in the cows with AOC. In this study, of the 32 Holstein cows, 8 resumed their ovarian cycle within 20 days of calving, 10 resumed the cycle with 21-40 days of calving, 8 within 41-60 days of calving, while the remaining 6 did not resume their ovarian cycles until 60 days postpartum. Furthermore, the likelihood ratios of incidence of NOC are 0.93, 1.94, and 0.38, respectively, in the groups with BUN levels < 15, 15-19.9, and ≥ 20 mg/dl. In conclusion, AOC postpartum adversely affects reproductive performance such as AI submission rate, pregnancy rate, interval to first AI and first AI conception rate; moreover, an increase or decrease in the BUN levels beyond 15-19.9 mg/dL leads to the AOC postpartum.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.565-573
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• 2023

In light of the complex interactions between the host animal and its resident gut microbiomes, studies of these microbial communities as a means to improve cattle production are important. This study was conducted to analyze the intestinal microorganisms of Holstein (HT) and Jersey (JS), raised in Korea and to clarify the differences in microbial structures according to cattle species through next-generation sequencing. The alpha-diversity analysis revealed that most species richness and diversity indices were significantly higher in JS than in HT whereas phylogenetic diversity, which is the sum of taxonomic distances, is not significant. Microbial composition analysis showed that the intestinal microbial community structure of the two groups differed. In the both groups, a significant correlation was observed among the distribution of several microbes at the family level. In particular, a highly significant correlation (p<0.0001) among a variety of microbial distributions was found in JS. Beta-diversity analyis was to performed to statistically verify whether a difference exists in the intestinal microbial community structure of the two groups. Principal coordinate analysis and unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) clustering analysis showed separation between the HT and JS clusters. Meanwhile, permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) revealed that their microbial structures are significantly different (p<0.0001). LEfSe biomarker analysis was performed to discover the differenc microbial features between the two groups. We found that several microbes, such as Firmicutes, Bacilli, Moraxellaceae and Pseudomonadales account for most of the difference in intestinal microbial community structure between the two groups.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1684-1688
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• 2017

Objective: From a review of published information on genetic association studies, a meta-analysis was conducted to determine the influence of the genes ${\kappa}-casein$ (CSN3) and ${\beta}-lactoglobulin$ (LGB) on milk yield traits in Holstein, Jersey, Brown Swiss, and Fleckvieh. Methods: The GLIMMIX procedure was used to analyze milk production and percentage of protein and fat in milk. Models included the main effects and all their possible two-way interactions; not estimable effects and non-significant (p>0.05) two-way interactions were dropped from the models. The three traits analyzed used Poisson distribution and a log link function and were determined with the Interactive Data Analysis of SAS software. Least square means and multiple mean comparisons were obtained and performed for significant main effects and their interactions (p<0.0255). Results: Interaction of breed by gene showed that Holstein and Fleckvieh were the breeds on which CSN3 ($6.01%{\pm}0.19%$ and $5.98%{\pm}0.22%$), and LGB ($6.02%{\pm}0.19%$ and $5.70%{\pm}0.22%$) have the greatest influence. Interaction of breed by genotype nested in the analyzed gene indicated that Holstein and Jersey showed greater influence of the CSN3 AA genotype, $6.04%{\pm}0.22%$ and $5.59%{\pm}0.31%$ than the other genotypes, while LGB AA genotype had the largest influence on the traits analyzed, $6.05%{\pm}0.20%$ and $5.60%{\pm}0.19%$, respectively. Furthermore, interaction of type of statistical model by genotype nested in the analyzed gene indicated that CSN3 and LGB genes had similar behavior, maintaining a difference of more than 7% across analyzed genotypes. These results could indicate that both Holstein and Jersey have had lower substitution allele effect in selection programs that include CSN3 and LGB genes than Brown Swiss and Fleckvieh. Conclusion: Breed determined which genotypes had the greatest association with analyzed traits. The mixed model based in Bayesian or Ridge Regression was the best alternative to analyze CSN3 and LGB gene effects on milk yield and protein and fat percentages.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.1242-1246
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• 2003

Data pertained to 335 crossbred cows comprising of 1/2 Friesian (F) + 1/2 Hariana (H), 1/2 F + 1/4 Jersey (J) + 1/4 H, 1/2 F + 1/4 Brown Swiss (BS) + 1/4 H, 1/2 F + 1/4 Red Dane (R) + 1/4 H, FR (I) and FRH (I) genetic groups extending over a period of 21 years (1970-1990) maintained at Animal Farm of CCS HAU, Hisar. The averages for first lactation milk yield was $2,486.24{\pm}80.26kg$ and peak yield of first three lactation were $11.35{\pm}0.72kg$, $13.97{\pm}0.60kg$ and $16.02{\pm}0.42kg$, respectively. The lifetime milk production was observed as $11,305.16{\pm}1,004.52kg$ in crossbred cattle. The average first lactation fat yield was observed as $102.06{\pm}0.01kg$ and peak fat yield of first three lactation were $0.458{\pm}0.01$, $0.490{\pm}0.01$ and $0.500{\pm}0.02kg$, respectively. The lifetime fat production was estimated as $502.31{\pm}45.90kg$. LTMP and LTFP had reasonably good additive genetic variance which could be exploited either through mass selection/combined with family or pedigree selection. FLMY, peak yields and LTMP had significant positive phenotypic correlation with FLFY and LTFP and the correlation at the genetic level were also higher and positive for these traits. Finally, peak week milk yield of first lactation (PMY1) was the earliest available trait having desirable and significant correlation at phenotypic and positive at genetic level with FLFY, PFY1 and PFY2, PFY3 and LTFP and selection for this trait will help in early evaluation of sires and dams and will increase genetic advancement per unit of time.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1237-1246
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to estimate variance components and genetic parameters for lactation milk yield (LY), lactation length (LL), average milk yield per day (YD), initial milk yield (IY), peak milk yield (PY), days to peak (DP) and parameters (ln(a) and c) of the modified incomplete gamma function (MIG) in an Ethiopian multibreed dairy cattle population. The dataset was composed of 5,507 lactation records collected from 1,639 cows in three locations (Bako, Debre Zeit and Holetta) in Ethiopia from 1977 to 2010. Parameters for MIG were obtained from regression analysis of monthly test-day milk data on days in milk. The cows were purebred (Bos indicus) Boran (B) and Horro (H) and their crosses with different fractions of Friesian (F), Jersey (J) and Simmental (S). There were 23 breed groups (B, H, and their crossbreds with F, J, and S) in the population. Fixed and mixed models were used to analyse the data. The fixed model considered herd-year-season, parity and breed group as fixed effects, and residual as random. The single and two-traits mixed animal repeatability models, considered the fixed effects of herd-year-season and parity subclasses, breed as a function of cow H, F, J, and S breed fractions and general heterosis as a function of heterozygosity, and the random additive animal, permanent environment, and residual effects. For the analysis of LY, LL was added as a fixed covariate to all models. Variance components and genetic parameters were estimated using average information restricted maximum likelihood procedures. The results indicated that all traits were affected (p<0.001) by the considered fixed effects. High grade $B{\times}F$ cows (3/16B 13/16F) had the highest least squares means (LSM) for LY ($2,490{\pm}178.9kg$), IY ($10.5{\pm}0.8kg$), PY ($12.7{\pm}0.9kg$), YD ($7.6{\pm}0.55kg$) and LL ($361.4{\pm}31.2d$), while B cows had the lowest LSM values for these traits. The LSM of LY, IY, YD, and PY tended to increase from the first to the fifth parity. Single-trait analyses yielded low heritability ($0.03{\pm}0.03$ and $0.08{\pm}0.02$) and repeatability ($0.14{\pm}0.01$ to $0.24{\pm}0.02$) estimates for LL, DP and parameter c. Medium heritability ($0.21{\pm}0.03$ to $0.33{\pm}0.04$) and repeatability ($0.27{\pm}0.02$ to $0.53{\pm}0.01$) estimates were obtained for LY, IY, PY, YD and ln(a). Genetic correlations between LY, IY, PY, YD, ln(a), and LL ranged from 0.59 to 0.99. Spearman's rank correlations between sire estimated breeding values for LY, LL, IY, PY, YD, ln(a) and c were positive (0.67 to 0.99, p<0.001). These results suggested that selection for IY, PY, YD, or LY would genetically improve lactation milk yield in this Ethiopian dairy cattle population.