Understanding the genetic architecture of dairy cattle health using whole genome re-sequencing data

奶牛对某些健康问题的易感性，如乳腺炎（乳房组织的疼痛性炎症），约翰氏病（慢性，有时致命的肠道感染），代谢性疾病（皱胃移位，临床酮病，乳热等）和生育障碍（胎盘滞留、子宫炎、卵巢囊肿等）部分是遗传的在加拿大，这些健康问题在泌乳奶牛中的患病率很高：20-40%的奶牛患有一种或多种这些疾病。加拿大奶牛数量为100万头，全球奶牛数量为2.7亿头，健康性状的遗传改良可能会对大量动物产生积极影响。利用遗传改良来改善健康性状的优势是多方面的：奶牛受益于预期寿命/生活质量的提高;农民受益于牛奶产量的增加，兽医成本的降低和淘汰率的降低;消费者受益于高质量的牛奶产品;以及环境中抗生素的数量减少。

Susceptibility of dairy cattle to certain health problems, such as mastitis (a painful inflammation of udder tissue), Johne’s disease (chronic, sometimes fatal infection of the intestine), metabolic diseases (displaced abomasum, clinical ketosis, milk fever, etc.) and fertility disorders (retained placenta, metritis, cystic ovaries, etc.) is partially genetic in nature. In Canada, the prevalence of these health problems in lactating dairy cows is substantial: 20-40% have one or more of these disorders. With a Canadian dairy population of 1 million cows and a global dairy population of 270 million cows, genetic improvement of health traits could positively impact a huge number of animals. The advantages of using genetic improvement to improve health traits are manifold: cows benefit through increased life expectancy / quality of life; farmers benefit through increased milk production, reduced veterinary costs, and decreased culling rate; consumers benefit through high-quality milk products; and the amount of antibiotics in the environment is reduced.