Phenotypic analysis of milk composition, milk urea nitrogen and somatic cell score of Italian Jersey cattle breed

Abstract

The present study aimed to assess the phenotypic variation of milk yield (MY) and quality traits in Italian Jersey (IJ) breed. Sources of variation were investigated through a linear mixed model, including the fixed effects of days in milk (DIM), parity, calving season, milking frequency, recording type, the interaction between DIM and parity, and the random effects of herd-test-day (HTD), cow and the residual. Results highlighted the high contents of milk fat (5.18%), protein (4.08%) and casein (3.16%) of IJ cows. Somatic cell score, averaging 3.35 units, should be lowered through specific managerial actions. Phenotypic variances of MY and milk quality traits were mainly due to cow effect, whereas phenotypic variance of milk urea nitrogen (MUN) content was mainly due to HTD effect, meaning that managerial conditions, especially feeding, are very important to explain the variation of MUN. In conclusion, the present study allowed to characterise milk of IJ cows at population level and to identify environmental factors associated with variation of MY and quality traits, which will be useful to adjust phenotypic records in genetic evaluation of Jersey breed.

Highlights

• Factors affecting milk quality traits of Italian Jersey cows have been investigated.

• Phenotypic variance of milk composition and SCS was mainly due to cow effect, and that of MUN was mainly driven by herd-test-day effect.

• Significant environmental factors identified in the present study will be used to adjust phenotypic records in genetic analysis.

Keywords:

• Jersey cow
• Italian dairy sector
• milk composition

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest associated with the paper. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Aknowledgements

The first author wants to thank the ‘Fondazione Ing. Aldo Gini’ (Padova, Italy) for funding the research period at Massey University (Palmerston North, New Zealand). This study was supported by “Latteco project”, sottomisura 10.2 of the PSRN-Biodiversity 2014–2020.