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VikingNews UK 03 2016
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health
traits
becoming an international trend a strong point in the nordic
countries is that farmers play an important role in the definition of the breeding goal. no other countries in the world have the same tradition as we have and therefore the nordic health profile is unique. it is so easy; a healthy cow, with strong feet, can walk easily, eat a lot, and produce a lot of milk. in addition, a healthy cow does not need much atten- tion from the owner. invisible cows make life much easier for the owner. although, the challenge with health is that those registrations are difficult to measure objectively like milk yield and conformation. therefore, much effort has been put into standardizing the definition and recording of diseases, and veterinarians, hoof trimmers and farmers have been well educated. the dairy production in the world has understood this, and in march 2016, the privately owned animal health company zoetis launched clari- fied plus to offer dairy farmers and ai companies a genomic test on health traits to select holstein females within the herd and bulls for the ai company. the launching of clarified plus is a sign of this international interest in health characteristics. zoetis has de- veloped a genomic prediction for health traits based on production re- cords assembled from farm data from commercial us dairies. there are six traits that zoetis is evaluating and sell- ing and these are: mastitis, lameness, metritis, retained placenta, displaced abomasum and ketosis. we all know that health traits have been an integrated part of vikinggenetics? breeding efforts since late 80?s and it is the trademark of vikinggenetics? breeding program. the secret behind the nordic farmers? success is their willingness to register all traits including health. farmers in the nordic countries are fully committed to the registration system as they use it for managing and breeding in their herds. the nordic health profile is far ahead in the nordic countries, the trait mastitis resistance index , has extensive vete- rinarian registrations of clinical masti- tis as the main source. registrations are done for all cows on all farms and are official. on top of that, we also include data on somatic cell score, for udder at- tachment and udder depth that we also know affect the mastitis resistance. this is much more information than anyone else offers. lameness is one of the most painful diseases for a cow and a costly disease for a farmer. the nordic countries pres- ent a breeding value for hoof health , based on official reports from hoof trim- mers where they classify each individu- al hoof for eight different disorders. lameness, as zoetis is selling, is only the symptom of a hoof disorder. by get- ting to the direct cause, registration of hoof disorders is needed. since mid-80?s, bulls from denmark, finland and sweden have had a breed- ing value called other diseases , based on official veterinarian treatments clas- sified into four different groups; feet and leg problems, metabolic diseases, early reproductive disorders and late reproductive disorders. we can state that there are more di- agnoses listed in the health traits we use in vikinggenetics than in the case of clarified plus and the knowledge we have in the nordic countries of breed- ing for health traits is a valuable treas- ure for the farmers. the milk recording system in the nordic countries is highly developed and 90% of the cows participate in the registration of health traits. this is official data and gives you as a farmer reliable breeding values. 90% reliable data milk recording cows in control 90% health diagnoses 100% inseminations whole herd classification 35% 55% hoof trimmings 1 000 000 1 000 000 reliable data by camilla rosman, marketing manager, vikinggenetics 6 vikingnews | september 2016
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