Genetic effects on stillbirth and calving difficulty in Swedish Holsteins at first and second calving

From: Journal of Dairy Science | Date: June 1, 2003| Author: Steinbock, L; Nasholm, A; Berglund, B; Johansson, K; Philipsson, J | Copyright information

ABSTRACT

In Swedish Holstein dairy cattle, genetic effects on stillbirth and calving difficulty were studied in 411,409 first- and 281,193 second-calvers. A linear single-trait sire-maternal grandsire model and a threshold model using a Gibbs sampling technique were used to analyse calving data from 1985 to 1996. In first calving when using the linear model, the heritability of stillbirth on the visible scale was 4% for the direct effect and 3% for the maternal effect. For calving diff...

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