Biomedical subjects

L R Schaeffer

Publications and source records attributed to L R Schaeffer.

42 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

PubMed1988

Aggressive behavior of sows at parturition.

Sows, especially primiparous, may show aggressive behavior at parturition against their own piglets, resulting in wounding or death of the piglets. Frequency, environmental influences and heritability of aggressive behavior were studied in two data sets. The first (923 first litters) was collected at an experimental farm and the other (925 first litters) came from a pig breeding organization. Frequency of aggressiveness ranged, depending on its definition, from 7 to 12%. Fixed effects of year, season and feeding level of the gilt during the rearing period did not affect the frequency of aggressiveness. A regression of aggression on postpartum sow weight was found, suggesting that low weight at first farrowing might predispose sows to aggressive behavior. Coefficients for backfat and litter size were positive but nonsignificant. Heritability of aggressiveness on the underlying normal scale, estimated from the paternal half-sib component of variance, averaged .12 for the first data set, and .25 for data set II. Estimates from daughter-dam regression were .49 and .87 for the two data sets, respectively. A simulation study indicated that this difference might be due to maternal effects. A simple application would be to select boars and gilts from non-aggressive sows only. Response to selection would be rather slow if the frequency of aggressive behavior is low. At frequencies that are too high from an economic point of view, estimation of breeding values, combining own performance and(or) data from relatives, is required.

Aggression↗

PubMed1988

Genetic parameters for fertility of dairy bulls.

Genetic parameters for male fertility and fertility ratings of AI bulls were obtained by analyzing 298,013 service records of cows with successive calving records. Cows were mated to 746 service bulls, which were progeny of 126 sires. The model for variance component estimation accounted for fixed effects of herd-year-seasons, sire of the service bull, age of mates, and random effects of service bull and residual error. Estimates of variances of service bulls and residual error components for bull fertility indicated almost 10% of the phenotypic variation for fertility is among AI bulls. Best linear unbiased prediction of fertility ratings of individual bulls with inclusion of sire and maternal grandsire relationships on these data permitted the evaluation of 886 AI bulls for bull fertility. Heritability for bull fertility computed as twice the regression of son on sire was .158. Differences in fertility ratings of AI bulls ranged from -.29 to .19. Prediction of fertility of young AI bulls and more accurate rating of proven bulls might be useful to the industry.

Animals↗

PubMed1985

Estimation of genetic parameters for stayability in Canadian Holsteins.

Hazard functions were plotted and troughs were used to define stayability traits that best coincided with the time of culling decisions. Traits evaluated were stayability to 17, 30, 43, and 55 mo of productive life and stayability to 42, 54, 66, and 78 mo of total life. Holstein data from Record of Performance and supervised Dairy Herd Improvement and Dairy Herd Analysis Service testing programs formed two data sets with 243,348 and 118,362 daughters of 10,723 and 4,583 sires, respectively, and were used to estimate stayability heritabilities and correlations. Variance components were estimated by Henderson's new method using a model that included a fixed herd-year-season of first calving effect and random sire and error effects. Heritabilities for stayability to 17, 30, 43, and 55 mo of productive life were .025, .040, .039, and .033, respectively, for the Record of Performance data and .010, .017, .023, and .033, respectively, for the Dairy Herd Improvement-Dairy Herd Analysis Service supervised data. Heritability estimates for stayability to 42, 54, 66, and 78 mo of total life were .051, .040, .045, and .059, respectively, for the Dairy Herd Improvement-Dairy Herd Analysis Service supervised data. Genetic correlations among productive life traits were usually very high and approached unity. Genetic correlations among total life traits were lower and more variable. Most phenotypic correlations were moderately high but some were low. Stayability to 17 mo of productive life was concluded to be the best trait for incorporation into a selection program if evaluation of sires for longevity is desired.

Animals↗

PubMed1984

Relationship between external body measurements and calving difficulties in Canadian Holstein-Friesian cattle.

Thirteen body measurements per cow were collected from 1980 to 1981 on 3,193 Canadian Holstein-Friesian cows by 576 sires in 100 herds. These data were analyzed to test effects of herd, age of cow, stage of lactation, and generation group; to predict sire proofs; to estimate heritabilities and genetic and phenotypic correlations among body measures; and to estimate correlations between sire proofs for body measures and sire (maternal grandsire of calf) proofs for calving ease. Herd and age of cow were important sources of variation for all external body measures. Stage of lactation was an important source of variation for heart girth, and for slopes from hip to pin and from thurl to pin. Effects of generation group were not significant for any body measures. Heritabilities were moderate to high (.21 to .45). Genetic correlations among all height characteristics were large and positive (.68 to .99). Daughters that were large with wide pins, long sloping rumps, and little slope from thurl to pin bone seemed to be favored for easy calving.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1983

Effectiveness of model for cow evaluation intraherd.

Cow evaluations for production derived from an intraherd model for six dairy breeds were studied. Cow evaluations calculated within each of two herds were correlated and agreed closely with correlations expected from selection index. Another study compared genetic trends from sires, dams, and cows and found that trends from sire usage were more than twice as large as trends from dams. Comparison of sire evaluations with average evaluations of mates showed that nonrandom mating of sires with dams occurred infrequently and likely had no influence on sire evaluations. Other possible uses of cow evaluations were for differences between herds, genetic trends within herds, pedigree indexes for future offspring, and relation of pedigree indexes to Estimated Transmitting Abilities.

Animals↗

PubMed1982

Evaluation of Canadian Holstein-Friesian sires on disposal reasons of their daughters.

Data were lactations of 82,971 Canadian Holstein-Friesian cows by 4,778 sires recorded from 1975 to 1978 and included final disposal codes. Progeny were required to have first lactation records and were grouped according to whether they had the opportunity to complete one, two, or three lactations. Henderson's Method I technique was used to estimate sire, herd, and error variances within opportunity group for culling for low production, sickness, and all undesirable causes. Variances were low, and many were negative. Heritabilities ranged from 0 to .13. Best linear unbiased prediction techniques were used to estimate sire proofs for disposal reasons. Sire proofs were not distributed normally. Sire proofs were correlated between opportunity groups within disposal reason. All correlations were positive and ranged from .21 to .82. Correlations were greatest between contiguous opportunity groups and lowest between proofs on early opportunity groups and proofs on cows that were close to maturity, indicating that first opportunity group proofs for disposal are not accurate predictors of longevity. Routine evaluation of sires on disposal reasons is not recommended.

Animals↗