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Heritability of phenotypic udder traits to improve resilience to mastitis in Texel ewes
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Crump, Ron E., Cooper, Selin, Smith, E. M., Grant, Clare and Green, Laura E. (2018) Heritability of phenotypic udder traits to improve resilience to mastitis in Texel ewes. Animal . doi:10.1017/S1751731118002951 (In Press)
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1751731118002951
Abstract
There are no estimates of the heritability of phenotypic udder traits in suckler sheep, which produce meat lambs, and whether these are associated with resilience to mastitis. Mastitis is a common disease which damages the mammary gland and reduces productivity. The aims of this study were to investigate the feasibility of collecting udder phenotypes, their heritability and their association with mastitis in suckler ewes. Udder and teat conformation, teat lesions, intramammary masses (IMM) and litter size were recorded from 10 Texel flocks in Great Britain between 2012 and 2014; 968 records were collected. Pedigree data were obtained from an online pedigree recording system. Univariate quantitative genetic parameters were estimated using animal and sire models. Linear mixed models were used to analyse continuous traits and generalised linear mixed models were used to analyse binary traits. Continuous traits had higher heritabilities than binary with teat placement and teat length heritability (h2) highest at 0.35 (SD 0.04) and 0.42 (SD 0.04), respectively. Udder width, drop and separation heritabilities were lower and varied with udder volume. The heritabilities of IMM and teat lesions (sire model) were 0.18 (SD 0.12) and 0.17 (SD 0.11), respectively. All heritabilities were sufficiently high to be in a selection programme to increase resilience to mastitis in the population of Texel sheep. Further studies are required to investigate genetic relationships between traits and to determine whether udder traits predict IMM, and the potential benefits from including traits in a selection programme to increase resilience to chronic mastitis.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||||
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| Subjects: | S Agriculture > SF Animal culture | ||||||||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science > Life Sciences (2010- ) Faculty of Science > Mathematics |
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| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Mastitis, Sheep -- Diseases, Ewes | ||||||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Animal | ||||||||||||
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press | ||||||||||||
| ISSN: | 1751-7311 | ||||||||||||
| Official Date: | 21 November 2018 | ||||||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Date of first compliant deposit: | 11 October 2018 | ||||||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1017/S1751731118002951 | ||||||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||||
| Publication Status: | In Press | ||||||||||||
| Publisher Statement: | This article has been published in a revised form in Animal http://doi.org/10.1017/S1751731118002951. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. © copyright holder. | ||||||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||||||
| Copyright Holders: | The Animal Consortium 2018 | ||||||||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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