Analyses of functional traits with indicator traits to improve genomic reliability in Australian Holstein cattle using domestic daughter deviation or de-regressed proofs as response variable

Abstract Text: Daughter trait deviation (DTD) or de-regressed proofs (DRP) of fertility and survival of Australian Holstein bulls were analyzed to test if reliability of genomic prediction could be increased by using milk yield and cell count as indicator traits. Genomic correlation between the indicator and the predicted traits were moderate to high and were stronger when DRP was used as a response variable instead of DTD. For validation bulls, squared correlation (r²) between the predicted direct genomic value (DGV) and DTD or DRP were lower for survival than for fertility. The use DRP as response variable for fertility increased r² between DRP and DGVs as compared to using DTD from about 0.20 to 0.30. There was no increase in r² between DTD or DRP and their DGVs for fertility and only a maximum of 0.01 increases was observed for survival.

Keywords: Functional traits, Correlated traits, Genomic prediction