Health Traits Added to Jersey Reports
When Jersey breeders receive their next set of Registration certificates and Official Performance Pedigrees, they will find more valuable information added to the performance documents.
The USJersey organizations released new Official Performance Pedigree and Progeny reports this week through infoJersey that include six health traits and a Health Trait Index (HTI). The data was released with the April 2020 genetic evaluations by the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB).
On the official Jersey reports the health traits were added as a fourth line under the CDCB PTA line. Information is provided for the animal, two parents and four grandparents on the official pedigree.
The traits are designated with the following abbreviations: displaced abomasum (DAB), milk fever (MFV), ketosis (KET), mastitis (MAS), metritis (MET) and retained placenta (RPL) and Health Trait Index (HTI). The HTI is reported as JPITM points and represents 4.6% of JPI2020.
The six health traits released in April are designed to help alleviate costly health conditions impacting Jerseys and help build a resistance to each of the categories. PTAs for each of the health traits will be the predicted daughter difference for resistance above or below the Jersey breed average. The larger the positive values, the more favorable the genetic resistance to the disorder. These values can help identify individuals that transmit costly traits and help manage their use in breeding programs.
Learn more about Jersey Performance Index2020 at Green Book Online (greenbook.usjersey.com). For more information on the association’s complete line of services for dairy business owners, visit USJersey.com or connect at facebook.com/USJersey.
