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ARS Home » Plains Area » Clay Center, Nebraska » U.S. Meat Animal Research Center » Genetics and Animal Breeding » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #308959
Title: Estimation of breed-specific heterosis effects for birth, weaning, and yearling weight in cattle

Author
item SCHIERMIESTER, LAUREN - University Of Nebraska
item Thallman, Richard - Mark
item Kuehn, Larry
item KACHMAN, STEPHEN - University Of Nebraska
item SPANGLER, MATTHEW - University Of Nebraska

Submitted to: Journal of Animal Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/13/2014
Publication Date: 1/1/2015
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/62248
Citation: Schiermiester, L.N., Thallman, R.M., Kuehn, L.A., Kachman, S.D., Spangler, M.L. 2015. Estimation of breed-specific heterosis effects for birth, weaning, and yearling weight in cattle. Journal of Animal Science. 93(1):46-52. doi: 10.2527/jas.2014-8493.

Interpretive Summary: Heterosis (the advantage of crossbred animals relative to their purebred parents) has been studied extensively for a variety of traits in beef cattle. However, studies of heterosis have generally assumed that the degree of heterosis is the same for crosses among all pairs of breeds. Heterosis estimates from crosses among Bos indicus (humped) and Bos taurus (non-humped) cattle are generally much larger than estimates from crosses among Bos taurus breeds, but studies in which heterosis among various pairs of breeds (breed-specific heterosis) has been estimated concurrently. This study provides estimates of heterosis among and within two major groups of Bos taurus cattle: 3 British breeds (Angus, Hereford, and Red Angus) and 4 breeds from continental Europe (Charolais, Gelbvieh, Limousin, and Simmental). These preliminary results indicate that there are differences in heterosis between pairs of breeds.

Technical Abstract: Heterosis, assumed proportional to expected breed heterozygosity, was calculated for 6,834 individuals with birth, weaning and yearling weight records from Cycle VII and advanced generations of the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) Germplasm Evaluation (GPE) project. Breeds represented in these data included: Angus, Hereford, Red Angus, Charolais, Gelbvieh, Simmental, Limousin and Composite MARC III. Heterosis was further estimated by proportions of British x British (BxB), British x Continental (BxC) and Continental x Continental (CxC) crosses and by breed-specific combinations. Model 1 fitted fixed covariates for heterosis within biological types while Model 2 fitted random breed-specific combinations nested within the fixed biological type covariates. Direct heritability estimates (SE) for birth, weaning and yearling weight for Model 1 were 0.42 (0.04), 0.22 (0.03) and 0.39 (0.05), respectively. The direct heritability estimates (SE) of birth, weaning and yearling weight for Model 2 were the same as Model 1 except yearling weight heritability was 0.38 (0.05). The BxB, BxC and CxC heterosis estimates for birth weight were 0.47 (0.37), 0.75 (0.32) and 0.73 (0.54) kg, respectively. The BxB, BxC and CxC heterosis estimates for weaning weight were 6.43 (1.80), 8.65 (1.54) and 5.86 (2.57) kg, respectively. Yearling weight estimates for BxB, BxC and CxC heterosis were 17.59(3.06), 13.88 (2.63) and 9.12 (4.34) kg, respectively. Differences did exist among estimates of breed-specific heterosis for weaning and yearling weight, although the variance component associated with breed-specific heterosis was not significant. These results illustrate that there are differences in breed-specific heterosis and exploiting these differences can lead to varying levels of heterosis among mating plans.