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VikingNews UK 03 2015
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diseases would include hoof horn quality, feet and leg conformation, immune functions, regeneration abilities, met- abolic profile, stress resistance, behaviour and interactions between all these factors. because of this complexity it is im- possible to perform an effective selection for better hoof health
using only few indirect traits. thus, using feet & leg conformation traits showed through the years to be non-effective for breeding for better hoof health. considerable improving in feet & legs conformation were not followed by any improvement in hoof health, but rather worsening the resistance according to number of re- searchers from e.g. sweden, denmark and canada. therefore it is much more efficient to select directly for hoof health by using hoof health registration data. hoof trimming data the only way only the nordic countries provide hoof health index solely based on the registration of hoof health made during the routine hoof trimming. viking countries also possess a greatest database of the hoof health gathering data on trim- ming of about half of a million cows per year. moreover, the majority of these cows are trimmed twice or even three times per year which makes the breeding values for hoof health highly reliable. because of the interest for genetic improvement of hoof health other breeding companies try to launch similar indi- ces. however, because of inability to gather considerable data from hoof trimming, these companies use big portion of con- formation data to construct their own ?hoof health index?. unfortunately this is misleading for the producers, since feet & leg conformation traits already showed inefficiency in se- lection for hoof health through the years. large variation among the sires even if heritability for hoof health traits is relatively low, there is a large variability across the sire daughter groups. if we compare hoof health index between the 100
best and 100 worst sires among all holstein sires born 2006-2009 with daughters in the three viking countries (including imported ones), the difference is more than two standard deviations of hoof health index between these groups. this means that daughters of the best sires from the aver- age cows under the average management conditions will have only 4.9% of sole ulcer, while daughters of the 100 worst sires will have as much as 11.8% of sole ulcer (figure 1). if we, in a similar way, compare the progeny of 100 best and 100 worst sires on feet & legs conformation the difference is only 1.2% less sole ulcer in the top group. every case of sole ulcer is estimated to cost about 500 eur per year, so for a farm with 150 cows the difference between the best and worst choice based on hoof health index is more than 5,000 eur per year ? a substantial sum, which requires nothing but changes in the breeding strategy. viking sires combine high production with good hoof health, so by selecting among the viking sires you can significantly reduce your production costs and improve net profit. sole ulcer, 4,9% sole ulcer, 11,8% derma22s, 28,8% derma22s, 38,3% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% progeny of top 100 bulls for hoof health index progeny of boeom 100 bulls for hoof health index sole ulcer derma22s sole ulcer, 4,9% sole ulcer, 11,8% derma22s, 28,8% derma22s, 38,3% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% progeny of top 100 bulls for hoof health index progeny of boeom 100 bulls for hoof health index sole ulcer derma22s sole ulcer, 4,9% sole ulcer, 11,8% derma22s, 28,8% derma22s, 38,3% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% progeny of top 100 bulls for hoof health index progeny of boeom 100 bulls for hoof health index sole ulcer derma22s figure 1. differences of expected hoof health in progeny of top 100 and bottom 100 holstein sires (born 2006-2009) 7 september 2015 | vikingnews
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