vikingdefence-health-breeding-4.html
VikingNews UK 03 2017
5 / 28
5 december 2017 | vikingnews t he
general
health
index
improved in the novem- ber evaluation and triggered some changes in the bull ranking. the correlation between the ?old?
index
and the new
index
is 0.90 for viking red and vi- kingholstein, while for vikingjersey the correlation is 0.50, meaning some more reranking in vikingjersey com- pared to vikingholstein and vikingred. the
general
health
index
is a combined
index
of early and late reproductive disorders, metabolic disorders and feet and leg problems. veterinarians and hoof trimmers collect the data behind this
index
, during the first three lactations. in the group ?metabolic disorders? we find ke- by lars nielsen, head of breeding, vikinggenetics new improvements in
general
health
index
tosis, milk fever, other metabolic diseases, other feed re- lated disorders, and other diseases. the main changes made in november were: ? hoof trimming data were deleted from the
general
health
index
. it is more logical to have such data in the hoof
health
index
only. ? metabolic disorders will be divided into ketosis and metabolic disorders. ketosis will be given its own
index
and beta hydroxy buturate (bhb) from milk data are included as an indicator for ketosis. corre- lation between bhb and ketosis is around 0.70, a similar level to somatic cell count as an indicator for mastitis. ? the statistical ?animal model? will be used instead of ?sire model? and this means that females will also be given breeding values based on own performance to start with, subindices in
general
health
will only be published for daughter proven bulls, not for genomic bulls. we aim to improve predictions for our breeding val- ues and the new improvements will make the
general
health
index
more reliable than ever ? supporting the optimal cow. we now have a new improved
index
for
general
health
.
data-health-traits-6.html