Technology

in Genetics

As we wind down our dairy genetics section of our course, let’s briefly review our genetic
response formula before we move on to genomic selection.

As you will recall, the rate of genetic progress is a function of four factors. The accuracy of our
genetic evaluations, our selection intensity, the genetic standard deviation, and the generation
interval.

As of 2008, the dairy industry had an effective genetic selection program except for two
challenges. First, we were able to generate a genetic evaluation for a bull, but he was pretty old
– at least 6 years – before he had enough milking daughters for the evaluation to have high
accuracy. That meant our sire generation interval was long. Secondly, genetic evaluations for
females had low accuracy because they had relatively few offspring. In 2008, a BeadChip was
developed that could test approximately 50,000 SNPs or single nucleotide polymorphisms. SNPs
are single base pair DNA mutations and we use SNP genotypes to generate genomic PTA for
young animals. This solves both of our challenges – we now have information on young bulls
before they are sexually mature rather than waiting for 6 years, and females have genetic
evaluations that are as accurate as young males. These genomic PTA are certainly not as
accurate as having observations for thousands of daughters, but we’ve cut our sire generation
interval from 6 to 2 years and have more confidence in selecting the top females.

Genomic testing will also allow us to develop genetic evaluations for traits that are difficult to
measure. For example, Bovine Respiratory Disease complex is a leading cause of calf mortality.
Unfortunately, we do not have a large database of disease recordings on calves so we cannot
select to reduce susceptibility to this disease. Scientists have recorded the incidence of this
disease on a smaller population of calves and developed genomic PTA for resistance. Genomic
PTA for BRD complex resistance and many other diseases will be available to dairy producers
because of genomic testing. Genomic PTA for other traits that are hard-to-record or expensive
to record, such as feed intake, are also under development.
Artificial insemination, embryo transfer, in-vitro fertilization, sexed semen, and now genomics
are key technologies in the dairy cattle genetics world. There are others on the horizon that
may or may not be important down the road. A cow has already been created that is not
susceptible to a specific type of udder infection by adding a resistance gene to her genome.
Such transgenic technologies and gene editing have the potential of radically changing animal
breeding, but they are controversial. These type of technologies will not compromise food
safety, but they will open up large debates about international trade of dairy genetics,
intellectual property rights, and whether or not a farmer still owns the reproductive rights of his
own cows. A second emerging technology is cloning. Cloning won’t, in and of itself, accelerate
genetic gain. Go back to our genetic response formula for a second and consider the impact of
cloning on generation interval. By the time an animal is born, grows up, is identified as an elite
animal and then cloned, we’ve added years to our denominator. So, cloning is not really the
ideal tool for animal breeders. Where cloning may become important is when used in
combination with transgenic technologies. If we genetically engineer a highly specialized cow,
we could potentially disseminate that cow’s genetics to commercial producers through cloning
instead of through her son’s semen.

As we bring our dairy genetics week to a close, you should have a broad overview of dairy
genetics and how we’ve made impressive genetic change in the dairy industry. Genetic
selection is not a tool that works overnight – it is the slow but steady driver of change over
time. There are always trade-offs, but dairy breeders have done a terrific job breeding cows
that use resources much more efficiently and they’ve done so without compromising the
structural integrity and udder health of their cows. Thanks for taking your time to learn about
dairy genetics and I hope you enjoy the rest of the course!