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Published on: December 16, 2015
Genetic parameters for milk fatty acid composition of Holstein in Korea
Chan Hyuk Park1, Umanthi Ranaraja1, Chang Gwon Dang2
1Division of Animal and Dairy Science, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea.
Objective:
Milk fatty acid (FA) is a main nutritional component that markedly effects human health. Intentional modification of the FA profile has the potential to improve milk quality. This study aimed at the factors affecting elevated FA levels and the estimation of the genetic parameters for milk FAs in the Korean Holstein population.
Methods:
Total 885,249 repeated test-day milk records including, milk yield, saturated fatty acids (SFA), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), total unsaturated fatty acids (TUFA), fat and protein percentages were analyzed using CombiFoss FT+ system (Foss Analytical A/S, Denmark). Genetic parameters were estimated by the restricted maximum likelihood procedure based on the repeatability model using the Wombat program.
Results:
The FA profile varies along with the lactation and the energy balance (EB). With the negative EB in early lactation, mobilization of body fat reserves elevates the desirable FA levels. As a result of that, milk quality is increased by means of nutritionally and usability aspects during the early lactation. Moreover, heritability estimates for SFA, MUFA, PUFA, TUFA were 0.33, 0.42, 0.37, 0.41 respectively. According to the parity wise heritability analysis, first parity cows had relatively lower heritability for SFAs (0.19) than later parities (0.28).
Conclusion:
Genetic parameters indicated that FAs were under stronger genetic control. Therefore, we suggest implementing animal breeding programs towards improving the milk FA profile.
