European Dairy Cattle Evaluations and International Use of Genomic Data.

The European and global dairy breeding industry has benefited enormously from collaboration and sharing of data. The new era of genomics has disrupted the information flow due to the requirement to protect commercial investments. New trait phenotypes, evaluation models, and breeding goals continue to evolve and will impact the way national and proprietary data are shared and presented to the dairy industry.

Association between a genetic index for lameness resistance and the incidence of claw horn lesions in Holstein cows.

Background: This study aimed to determine the association between the lameness advantage genetic index and four outcomes: sole haemorrhage (SH), sole ulcers (SU), white line lesions (WL), and lameness during mobility scoring.

Methods: We enrolled 2352 Holstein cows from four predominantly housed dairy herds in the UK. Cows were mobility scored and foot lesions recorded at four time points from before calving to late lactation.