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International dairy consumers are increasingly concerned about food safety and animal welfare. This demand from the consumer, combined with the dairy producer’s desire to have healthy, profitable animals, has driven the development of genetic evaluations focused on disease resistance in dairy animals.
Prior to 2016, dairy producers focused primarily on Productive Life when selecting for improved health and wellness in their herds. Today they can combine genetic selection for CDCB Health or Zoetis wellness with improved management practices to address the specific needs of their herds.
Data used in the development of the CDCB Health and Zoetis wellness traits comes from producer recorded health events collected from herds across the United States. Reliabilities for the traits range from 35-60%, with the highest reliabilities in progeny tested animals.
Each of the major selection indexes used to rank animals in the USA incorporates a combination of CDCB Health and/or Zoetis wellness traits. The Dairy Wellness Profit Index® (DWP$®) has the largest weighting on wellness and is the only economically validated index available in the industry.
How are CDCB Health Traits Different from Zoetis Wellness Traits?
The population of animals evaluated by CDCB is not identical to the population of animals evaluated by Zoetis. CDCB utilizes health records from animals included in official DHI milk recording. Zoetis collects health data from cooperating herds, regardless of milk recording status. While there is overlap in these base populations, they are not the same.
Zoetis wellness traits include an evaluation for Lameness, Cow Respiratory Disease, Fertility Traits (Cow Abortion, Cystic Ovaries, Twinning) and Calf Wellness Traits.
CDCB Health Trait values typically range from 0 to +/-3 and are expressed as the percent resistance to the disease above or below the average (0) for the breed. Zoetis values typically range from 85-115, with 100 as the mean and every +/-5 being one standard deviation from the mean.
How does WWS Handle These Traits?
World Wide Sires believes that dairy owners and managers should be well informed when making genetic investments for the future of their herds. For this reason, WWS tests all active sires for the Zoetis wellness traits and publishes this information alongside the CDCB Health Trait evaluations.
For further information, please visit the links below:
New Genetic Evaluations for Health Traits, CDCB
Validation of genomic predictions for a lifetime merit selection index for the US dairy industry, Journal of Dairy Science
CLARIFIDE® Plus Wellness Traits Offer Insight to Profitable Dairy Wellness Outcomes