Genetic Parameters of Fatty Acids in Italian Brown Swiss and Holstein Cows

Figures & data

Figure 1. Linear relationship between milk saturated fatty acids concentrations obtained using the Milkoscan™ FT 6500 Plus (FTIR%) and the gas chromatography (GC%).

Figure 2. Linear relationship between milk unsaturated fatty acids concentrations obtained using the Milkoscan™ FT 6500 Plus (FTIR%) and the gas chromatography (GC%).

Table 1. Number of records, lactations, cows and the average number of test-day records per parity per cow for the Italian Brown Swiss and the Holstein Friesian cattle.

	BSW	HOL
Records, n	154,467	1,171,022
Lactations, n	25,466	166,222
Cows, n	16,680	107,914
Average TD per lactation	6.07±2.27	7.045±2.61

BSW, Brown Swiss; HOL, Holstein Friesian; TD, test-day.

Table 2. Mean and standard deviation of milk fatty acids and other productive traits in Italian Brown Swiss and Holstein Friesian cows.

Productive traits	BSW		HOL
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
MY, kg/d	21.52	6.67	30.03	8.68
F %	3.99	0.56	3.71	0.63
P %	3.64	0.38	3.40	0.37
FY, kg	0.85	0.27	1.10	0.33
PY, kg	0.78	0.24	1.01	0.26
L, %	4.85	0.20	4.86	0.22
C, %	2.84	0.28	2.65	0.27
UR, mg/dL	25.83	6.73	23.88	6.73
Milk SCC, x1000	375.30	824.74	375.30	967.74
SFA, %	2.67	0.42	2.48	0.48
UFA, %	1.12	0.20	1.05	0.21
MUFA, %	0.87	0.15	0.84	0.16
PUFA, %	0.17	0.03	0.16	0.03
SFA:UFA	2.45	0.46	2.41	0.47
SFA:MUFA	3.11	0.52	3.00	0.53
SFA:PUFA	15.65	3.05	15.43	3.23

BSW, Brown Swiss; HOL, Holstein Friesian; SD, standard deviation; MY, milk yield; F, fat; P, protein; FY, fat yield; PY, protein yield; L, lactose; C, casein; UR, urea; SCC, somatic cell count; SFA, saturated fatty acid; UFA, unsaturated fatty acid; MUFA, monounsaturated fatty acid; PUFA, polyunsaturated fatty acid.

Table 3. Heritability and repeatability values within parity estimated with the test-day repeatability model in Italian Brown Swiss and Holstein Friesian cows.

Productive traits	BSW		HOL
	Heritability (SE)	Repeatability	Heritability (SE)	Repeatability
MY, kg/d	0.06 (0.009)	0.38	0.10 (0.004)	0.41
F, %	0.14 (0.009)	0.24	0.24 (0.004)	0.37
P, %	0.25 (0.013)	0.41	0.33 (0.005)	0.50
FY, kg	0.05 (0.007)	0.29	0.10 (0.004)	0.33
PY, kg	0.06 (0.008)	0.35	0.10 (0.004)	0.39
L, %	0.25 (0.013)	0.44	0.32 (0.005)	0.52
C, %	0.28 (0.013)	0.46	0.35 (0.006)	0.53
UR, mg/dL	0.07 (0.006)	0.12	0.10 (0.003)	0.19
Milk SCC, x1000	0.09 (0.011)	0.36	0.08 (0.004)	0.53
SFA, %	0.18 (0.01)	0.30	0.29 (0.005)	0.44
UFA, %	0.07 (0.007)	0.12	0.11 (0.003)	0.17
MUFA, %	0.06 (0.006)	0.11	0.10 (0.003)	0.15
PUFA, %	0.08 (0.007)	0.14	0.14 (0.003)	0.22
SFA:UFA	0.15 (0.008)	0.25	0.19 (0.004)	0.32
SFA:MUFA	0.13 (0.008)	0.21	0.18 (0.004)	0.31
SFA:PUFA	0.12 (0.007)	0.19	0.17 (0.003)	0.28

BSW, Brown Swiss; HOL, Holstein Friesian; SE, standard error; MY, milk yield; F, fat; P, protein; FY, fat yield; PY, protein yield; L, lactose; C, casein; UR, urea; SCC, somatic cell count; SFA, saturated fatty acid; UFA, unsaturated fatty acid; MUFA, monounsaturated fatty acid; PUFA, polyunsaturated fatty acid.

Table 4. Genetic correlation values estimated for all the traits and fatty acids in the two groups of cows: Italian Brown Swiss and Holstein Friesian.

Productive traits	BSW				HOL
	SFA (SE)	UFA (SE)	MUFA (SE)	PUFA (SE)	SFA (SE)	UFA (SE)	MUFA (SE)	PUFA (SE)
MY, kg/d	-0.34 (0.066)	-0.39 (0.071)	-0.32 (0.077)	-0.36 (0.069)	-0.38 (0.016)	-0.46 (0.008)	-0.45 (0.007)	-0.40 (0.008)
F, %	0.97 (0.003)	0.59 (0.032)	0.71 (0.027)	0.57 (0.035)	0.98 (0.005)	0.78 (0.006)	0.84 (0.005)	0.67 (0.006)
P, %	0.54 (0.029)	0.52 (0.038)	0.38 (0.045)	0.61 (0.034)	0.45 (0.003)	0.50 (0.006)	0.46 (0.009)	0.64 (0.008)
FY, kg	0.50 (0.056)	0.08 (0.090)	0.24 (0.088)	0.13 (0.086)	0.53 (0.01)	0.30 (0.021)	0.31 (0.011)	0.24 (0.008)
PY, kg	0.05 (0.025)	-0.05 (0.083)	-0.10 (0.084)	0.05 (0.081)	-0.05 (0.005)	-0.15 (0.006)	-0.22 (0.006)	-0.06 (0.006)
L, %	0.03 (0.038)	0.10 (0.051)	0.15 (0.054)	0.23 (0.045)	0.05 (0.002)	0.09 (0.005)	0.07 (0.005)	0.20 (0.002)
C, %	0.54 (0.028)	0.53 (0.036)	0.36 (0.045)	0.64 (0.031)	0.46 (0.003)	0.56 (0.008)	0.50 (0.012)	0.54 (0.004)
UR, mg/dL	0.14 (0.039)	0.16 (0.059)	0.34 (0.056)	0.30 (0.049)	0.17 (0.002)	0.11 (0.003)	0.32 (0.015)	0.29 (0.008)
Milk SCC, x1000	-0.20 (0.053)	-0.10 (0.069)	-0.11 (0.072)	-0.1 2 (0.067)	-0.07 (0.005)	-0.08 (0.008)	-0.09 (0.006)	-0.09 (0.006)
SFA:UFA	0.75 (0.023)	-0.32 (0.043)	-0.07 (0.055)	0.01 (0.051)	0.75 (0.006)	0.01 (0.004)	0.12 (0.005)	0.14 (0.011)
SFA:MUFA	0.81 (0.021)	-0.18 (0.047)	-0.07 (0.053)	0.13 (0.001)	0.84 (0.005)	0.14 (0.007)	0.23 (0.004)	0.21 (0.004)
SFA:PUFA	0.71 (0.024)	-0.09 (0.054)	0.15 (0.054)	-0.31 (0.044)	0.63 (0.002)	0.08 (0.001)	0.23 (0.005)	-0.08 (0.004)

BSW, Brown Swiss; HOL, Holstein Friesian; SFA, saturated fatty acid; UFA, unsaturated fatty acid; MUFA, monounsaturated fatty acid; PUFA, polyunsaturated fatty acid; SE, standard error; MY, milk yield; F, fat; P, protein; FY, fat yield; PY, protein yield; L, lactose; C, casein; UR, urea; SCC, somatic cell count.

Table 5. Genetic correlation values estimated for all the traits and fatty acids ratios in the two groups of cows: Italian Brown Swiss and Holstein Friesian.

Productive traits	BSW			HOL
	SFA:UFA (SE)	SFA:MUFA (SE)	SFA:PUFA (SE)	SFA:UFA (SE)	SFA:MUFA (SE)	SFA:PUFA (SE)
MY, kg/d	-0.08 (0.072)	-0.17 (0.073)	-0.08 (0.075)	-0.1 (0.003)	-0.16 (0.005)	-0.12 (0.003)
F, %	0.57 (0.094)	0.64 (0.072)	0.57 (0.073)	0.54 (0.005)	0.73 (0.007)	0.52 (0.003)
P, %	0.17 (0.036)	0.38 (0.037)	0.09 (0.035)	0.20 (0.003)	0.39 (0.007)	0.16 (0.003)
FY, kg	0.44 (0.06)	0.40 (0.063)	0.43 (0.062)	0.46 (0.008)	0.49 (0.009)	0.46 (0.009)
PY, kg	0.08 (0.065)	0.1 3 (0.07)	0.01 (0.072)	0.04 (0.005)	0.09 (0.005)	-0.01 (0.005)
L, %	-0.04 (0.041)	-0.08 (0.042)	-0.16 (0.042)	-0.002 (0.004)	0.03 (0.002)	-0.11 (0.003)
C, %	0.16 (0.038)	0.38 (0.033)	0.06 (0.039)	0.19 (0.002)	0.36 (0.003)	0.15 (0.003)
UR, mg/dL	0.03 (0.042)	-0.08 (0.051)	-0.07 (0.047)	0.16 (0.005)	0.09 (0.003)	0.03 (0.003)
Milk SCC, x1000	-0.13 (0.059)	-0.16 (0.016)	-0.11 (0.064)	-0.03 (0.003)	-0.06 (0.003)	-0.03 (0.003)

BSW, Brown Swiss; HOL, Holstein Friesian; SFA, saturated fatty acid; UFA, unsaturated fatty acid; MUFA, monounsaturated fatty acid; PUFA, polyunsaturated fatty acid; SE, standard error; MY, milk yield; F, fat; P, protein; FY, fat yield; PY, protein yield; L, lactose; C, casein; UR, urea; SCC, somatic cell count.