Inheritance of pulmonary arterial pressure in Angus cattle and its correlation with growth

Pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) is an indicator of resistance to blood flow through the lungs and when measured at high altitude is a reliable predictor of susceptibility of an animal to brisket disease, a noninfectious cardiac pulmonary condition. (Co)-variance components for PAP, birth weight, and adjusted 205-d weaning weight were estimated from 2,305 spring-born, registered Angus cattle from a Colorado ranch at an elevation of 1,981 m. A single measure of PAP was collected after weaning on animals born from 1984 to 2003. The same licensed veterinarian measured every animal. Multitrait animal models with and without PAP maternal effects were fitted for a pedigree including 132 sires and 793 dams. The interaction of year x sex was a significant fixed effect (P <0.05) for PAP, but age of dam was not. Age at PAP testing was a significant (P <0.1) linear covariate for PAP, and scores increased 0.012 +/- 0.007 mmHg X d(-1) of age. Heritability of PAP direct was 0.34 +/- 0.05. Maternal heritability converged to a boundary at 0.0, and the model with maternal genetic effects for PAP was not significantly better than a model with only direct effects. Phenotypically, PAP was uncorrelated with birth or weaning weights. Genetically, PAP appeared to have positive, unfavorable relationships with direct effects for birth (0.49 +/- 0.12) and weaning weight (0.50 +/- 0.18). Positive correlations imply sires whose offspring exhibited resistance to brisket disease had lower weights and gains. A model that evaluated PAP in females and males as different traits had heritability estimates for each sex of 0.38 +/- 0.07 and 0.46 +/- 0.09, respectively, with a genetic correlation of 0.64 +/- 0.12 between the sexes and was not significantly better than the model assuming homogeneity by sex and a unit genetic correlation between sexes. The results suggest that PAP is moderately heritable in spring-born Angus cattle acclimatized and tested at high altitude, and selection for low PAP scores would be effective. Selection for growth at low altitude will produce cattle less suited to high altitude.