Genetic parameters for semen production traits in Swiss dairy bulls

Burren, Alexander; Jörg, Hannes; Erbe, Malena; Gilmour, Arthur R.; Witschi, Ulrich; Schmitz‐Hsu, Fritz (2019). Genetic parameters for semen production traits in Swiss dairy bulls Reproduction in Domestic Animals, 54(9), pp. 1177-1181. Wiley-Blackwell 10.1111/rda.13492

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Variance components (VC) were estimated for the semen production trait ejaculate volume, sperm concentration and sperm motility in the Swiss cattle breeds Brown Swiss (BS), Original Braunvieh (OB), Holstein (HO), Red‐Factor‐Carrier (RF), Red Holstein (RH), Swiss Fleckvieh (SF) and Simmental (SI). For this purpose, semen production traits from 2,617 bulls with 124,492 records were used. The data were collected in the years 2000–2012. The model for genetic parameter estimation across all breeds included the fixed effects age of bull at collection, year of collection, month of collection, number of collection per bull and day, interval between consecutive collections, semen collector, bull breed as well as a random additive genetic component and a permanent environmental effect. The same model without a fixed breed effect was used to estimate VC and repeatabilities separately for each of the breeds BS, HO, RH, SF and SI. Estimated heritabilities across all breeds were 0.42, 0.25 and 0.09 for ejaculate volume, sperm concentration and sperm motility, respectively. Different heritabilities were estimated for ejaculate volume (0.42; 0.45; 0.49; 0.40; 0.10), sperm concentration (0.34; 0.30; 0.20; 0.07; 0.23) and number of semen portions (0.18; 0.30; 0.04; 0.14; 0.04) in BS, HO, RH, SF and SI breed, respectively. The phenotypic and genetic correlations across all breeds between ejaculate volume and sperm concentration were negative (−0.28; −0.56). The other correlations across all breeds were positive. The phenotypic and genetic correlations were 0.01 and 0.19 between sperm motility and ejaculate volume, respectively. Between sperm motility and sperm concentration, the phenotypic and genetic correlations were 0.20 and 0.36, respectively. The results are consistent with other analyses and show that genetic improvement through selection is possible in bull semen production traits.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL > Resource-efficient agricultural production systems School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL > Agriculture
Name:	Burren, Alexander0000-0001-9948-7039; Jörg, Hannes; Erbe, Malena; Gilmour, Arthur R.; Witschi, Ulrich and Schmitz‐Hsu, Fritz
Subjects:	Q Science > QL Zoology S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General) S Agriculture > SF Animal culture
ISSN:	0936-6768
Publisher:	Wiley-Blackwell
Language:	English
Submitter:	Nadine Werndli
Date Deposited:	11 Dec 2019 12:52
Last Modified:	18 Dec 2020 13:29
Publisher DOI:	10.1111/rda.13492
Uncontrolled Keywords:	cattle; genetics; semen production traits; variance components
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.9430
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/9430