Over the years, the semen from international diary bulls have been used in many crossbred African dairy cows, resulting in an influx of exotic genetics. CTLGH researchers have successfully extended the UK national genomic evaluation pipeline to incorporate genotypes and animal information from many crossbred dairy cows in Africa.
Initial data from the Dairy Genetic East African programme was tested and compared to data held on the UK national genetic and genomic evaluation system, which includes genotypes from thousands of animals, including many influential bulls whose semen has been exported internationally and therefore may have been used in Africa.
These genotypes are linked to detailed pedigree information, so researchers were able to use information based from genomic predictions and also from information from relatives. As detailed pedigree records are not commonly kept in African dairy systems, being able to utilise potential additional information sources could improve the genomic evaluation based on performance records and genotypes from African dairy cows alone.
CTLGH researchers have shown that key contributions in African crossbred dairy cows from a range of international bulls (sires and/or grandsires) can be identified. The predominant breed is Holstein – numerically the largest breed in the world – along with the Jersey. Much of the genetics originate from US or Canadian breeding programmes.
They are now looking at “building” pedigrees and associated data into the genomic prediction for African dairy cattle to see if genomic prediction for traits on UK dairy cows are related to those based on African dairy cows.
