Genetic parameters for abnormal sucking traits in Austrian Fleckvieh heifers

Cross-sucking and intersucking are considered abnormal behaviours in cattle and constitute a common problem in dairy farming. Cross-sucking in calves is defined as sucking any body parts of another calf whereas intersucking in heifers and cows is defined as sucking the udder or udder area. The aim of this study was to determine the genetic variability for abnormal sucking behaviour by estimating genetic parameters and examining individual differences between sires with large progeny groups. By means of a questionnaire, cattle breeders in the federal state Lower Austria were requested to identify all currently kept animals which are known of either inter- or cross-sucking (both defined as the same binary trait 'sucking' with 0 and 1 referring to the absence and presence of this abnormal behaviour) or allowing sucking (also treated as a binary trait, scored as 1 if an animal was known of allowing herd mates to suck and 0 otherwise). Records of 1222 farms and 13,332 dual purpose Simmental females aged between 21 and 700 days were investigated applying a linear animal model with fixed herd x year x season and random genetic animal effect and a threshold sire model with the herd x year x season effect being treated as random. In total, 8.6% and 4.1% of all calves/heifers were observed sucking and allowing sucking, respectively. Heritabilities of 0.040 +/- 0.014 and 0.007 +/- 0.006 (linear animal model) and 0.116 +/- 0.041 and 0.026 +/- 0.024 (threshold model) were found for the traits sucking and allowing sucking, respectively. Breeding values were estimated applying the same models for the trait sucking. Taking all 254 sires into account, the Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients between breeding values estimated by linear animal and sire threshold model were 0.86 and 0.80. Thus, little difference was observed between the two methods.