Short Communication: Exploring Genetic Associations with Cryptorchidism in Wagyu Cattle.

Wagyu cattle have seen an upsurge in popularity within the United States in recent years, as consumers seek improved meat quality and intramuscular fat, also known as marbling. The small effective population size of Wagyu cattle, paired with the growing interest in the breed, has led to increased inbreeding. As inbreeding has increased, the emergence of deleterious traits (i.

Validation of loci and genes associated with fertility in Holstein cows using gene-set enrichment analysis-SNP and genotype-by-sequencing.

Background: The financial strain fertility issues cause the dairy cattle industry is substantial, with over $7 billion in lost revenue accrued annually due to a relatively low cow conception rate (CCR; 30-43%) for US dairy cows. While CCR has been improving through genomic selection, identification of causal mutations would help improve the rate of genetic progress with genomic selection and provide a better understanding of infertility. The objectives of this study were to: (1) identify genes and gene-sets associated with CCR to the first breeding (CCR1) and the number of breedings required to conceive (TBRD) in Holstein cows and (2) identify putative functional variants associated with CCR1 and TBRD through a custom genotype-by-sequencing array.