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VikingNews UK 03 2017
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6 vikingnews | december 2017 breeding directly for
health
traits
is possible. with a large amount of high quality and reliable
data
for the actual disease cases, you can measure and keep track of the
health
traits
. vikingdefence tm t o breed directly for
health
traits
is possible. with a large volume of high quality and reliable
data
for actual disease cases, you can measure and keep track of
health
traits
. some people argue that it is difficult to achieve reliable proofs for individual disease
traits
, because you cannot measure
health
traits
as you can milk yield. however, vikinggenetics is confident with saying that in the nordic countries, we can breed for
health
traits
with the highest possible reliability. this practice is possible thanks to an extensive and trustworthy
data
entry system. by uliana langeland, international marketer, vikinggenetics we have put a lot of effort into creating and improving the
data
collection system. this would only be possible with standardisation of disease recording, and educating farmers, veterinarians and hoof trimmers, and bringing all the information into the same
data
base. a high proportion of cows contribute with
data
results for high reliability of breeding values. general
health
and udder
health
are based on records kept by veterinarians in the first three lactations. for registrations made by vet- erinarians, over 80 different disease codes are used to de- scribe the diagnoses that are categorised as follows for breeding purposes: ? udder diseases ? reproductive diseases (retained placenta, metritis, etc.) ? metabolic diseases (ketosis, displaced abomasum, etc.) ? feet and leg diseases for hoof
health
,
data
are mainly entered electronically by hoof trimmers but also by veterinarians and herd managers. the nordic cattle genetic evaluation (nav) is always available to ensure high reliability and quality of
data
. only records from herds complying with strict rules are used in genetic evaluations. systematic
data
collection for
health
traits
started before 1985 in sweden and finland, and since 1990 in denmark, the first countries to record systematic
data
. since 2006, registration has been initiated on a small- er scale by other countries in e.g. austria, canada, france, united kingdom (uk) and united states (us). unique
data
collection what makes
data
collection in denmark, sweden and finland different? ? each cow has a unique identification (id) from birth to slaughter. ? all the
data
are entered in one
data
base. ? a high proportion of herds participate in
data
reg- istration. around 900,000 or 90% of cows are reg- istered for
health
traits
in the
data
base. ? the
data
are available from different production systems at all management levels. ? strict veterinary rules ? all veterinary treatments are registered. ? farmers commit to register
data
because they use the results as the most important management tool. reliable registrations are always the key to success
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