title: Economic values for health and feed efficiency traits of dual-purpose cattle in marginal areas.
abstract: Economic values of clinical mastitis, claw disease, and feed efficiency traits along with 16 additional production and functional traits were estimated for the dairy population of the Slovak Pinzgau breed using a bioeconomic approach. In the cow-calf population (suckler cow population) of the same breed, the economic values of feed efficiency traits along with 15 further production and functional traits were calculated. The marginal economic values of clinical mastitis and claw disease incidence in the dairy system were -€ 70.65 and -€ 26.73 per case per cow and year, respectively. The marginal economic values for residual feed intake were -€ 55.15 and -€ 54.64/kg of dry matter per day for cows and breeding heifers in the dairy system and -€ 20.45, -€ 11.30, and -€ 6.04/kg of dry matter per day for cows, breeding heifers, and fattened animals in the cow-calf system, respectively, all expressed per cow and year. The sums of the relative economic values for the 2 new health traits in the dairy system and for residual feed intake across all cattle categories in both systems were 1.4 and 8%, respectively. Within the dairy production system, the highest relative economic values were for milk yield (20%), daily gain of calves (20%), productive lifetime (10%), and cow conception rate (8%). In the cow-calf system, the most important traits were weight gain of calves from 120 to 210 d and from birth to 120 d (19 and 14%, respectively), productive lifetime (17%), and cow conception rate (13%). Based on the calculation of economic values for traits in the dual-purpose Pinzgau breed, milk production and growth traits remain highly important in the breeding goal, but their relative importance should be adapted to new production and economic conditions. The economic importance of functional traits (especially of cow productive lifetime and fertility) was sufficiently high to make the inclusion of these traits into the breeding goal necessary. An increased interest of consumers in animal welfare and quality of dairy farm products should probably lead to the incorporation of health traits (clinical mastitis incidence and somatic cells score) into the breeding goal. However, keeping carcass traits in the breeding goal of the Slovak Pinzgau breed does not seem to be relevant to the long-term market situation.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Science, PO Box 1, 104 01 Prague, Czech Republic. Electronic address: krupova.zuzana@vuzv.cz.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Krupová
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Science, PO Box 1, 104 01 Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Krupa
authors.affiliation: Animal Production Research Centre Nitra, National Agricultural and Food Centre, Hlohovecká 2, 951 41 Lužianky, Slovakia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Michaličková
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Science, PO Box 1, 104 01 Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wolfová
authors.affiliation: Slovak University of Agriculture, Tr. A. Hlinku 2, 949 76 Nitra, Slovakia.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kasarda
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000191:economics; D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D002417:Cattle / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D003612:Dairying / Q000191:economics*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008414:Mastitis, Bovine / Q000191:economics*; D008892:Milk / Q000191:economics*; D010641:Phenotype
keywords: cattle; claw disease; mastitis; residual feed intake