By Distl, O., Zuchtungskunde, 1995
Description
Culling due to claw and leg problems has reached in the meantime nearly the same importance as culling due to mastitis and udder health. Foot and leg problems are now after infertility one of the major reasons for involuntary culling of cows. According to the reports of the official milk recording organization in Bavaria no other culling frequency increased so steadily and constantly as the culling due to feet and legs. Since 1980 the culling rate due to feet and legs was doubled. Feet and leg problems are mainly localized in claws. Investigations in different European countries concluded that more than 50 % of all cows are suffering from foot and leg problems. Breeding for foot and leg soundness has to focus on claws because most lameness problems arise from there. To be effective,judgements of legs and locomotion in young cows and bulls as well as claw measures in young bulls should be used as selection criteria for young bulls, bull sires and bull dams. Claw measures can be recorded very accurately, cheaply, and the heritabilities are high enough to achieve a substantial genetic response. The indirect selection pathway via the young bull should be used to introduce claw measures into a breeding programme. The genetic correlations between claw measures of young bulls and their daughters proved to be high enough for an effective indirect selection on soundness of feet and legs in future cows. Selection in young bulls has to be based on claw measures, hardness of claw horn and careful judgements of legs weighted according to their relative value for disease resistance and longevity of future progeny. The same strategy of selection for soundness of feet and legs should be employed for the selection of bull dams and cows by using the information of young bulls as paternal half sibs. Further developments to predict the genetic predisposition to claw diseases for young animals aim at measuring the forces at the ground surface floor interaction. However, more work is needed to be used in selection of young animals.
Culling due to claw and leg problems has reached in the meantime nearly the same importance as culling due to mastitis and udder health. Foot and leg problems are now after infertility one of the major reasons for involuntary culling of cows. According to the reports of the official milk recording organization in Bavaria no other culling frequency increased so steadily and constantly as the culling due to feet and legs. Since 1980 the culling rate due to feet and legs was doubled. Feet and leg problems are mainly localized in claws. Investigations in different European countries concluded that more than 50 % of all cows are suffering from foot and leg problems. Breeding for foot and leg soundness has to focus on claws because most lameness problems arise from there. To be effective,judgements of legs and locomotion in young cows and bulls as well as claw measures in young bulls should be used as selection criteria for young bulls, bull sires and bull dams. Claw measures can be recorded very accurately, cheaply, and the heritabilities are high enough to achieve a substantial genetic response. The indirect selection pathway via the young bull should be used to introduce claw measures into a breeding programme. The genetic correlations between claw measures of young bulls and their daughters proved to be high enough for an effective indirect selection on soundness of feet and legs in future cows. Selection in young bulls has to be based on claw measures, hardness of claw horn and careful judgements of legs weighted according to their relative value for disease resistance and longevity of future progeny. The same strategy of selection for soundness of feet and legs should be employed for the selection of bull dams and cows by using the information of young bulls as paternal half sibs. Further developments to predict the genetic predisposition to claw diseases for young animals aim at measuring the forces at the ground surface floor interaction. However, more work is needed to be used in selection of young animals.
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