Genetic Markers for Resistance to Ketosis in Dairy Cattle

Abstract

High-yielding dairy cattle are susceptible to ketosis, a metabolic disease which negatively affects the health, fertility and production of the cow. The goal of this research was to investigate candidate genes involved in the development of ketosis for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) with the potential to be used as genetic markers for disease-resistance. A panel of 998 SNP markers were identified in silico. A preliminary sample of Canadian Holstein cows were genotyped for the new markers and producer-recorded cases of clinical ketosis and milk β-hydroxybutyrate, an indicator of ketosis, were used as the phenotypes for association analyses. Results of the analyses suggested that forty-five markers in thirty-one unique candidate genes were associated to the metabolic traits. This work is an initial step in the development of a genetic tool to improve ketosis-resistance and also indicates new pathways that may be related to the biological mechanisms underlying the disease.