Thrombin as a Potential Proxy to Select for Horn Fly Abundance in Beef Cattle
Horn flies are a major nuisance to cattle and induce significant economic losses. Fly abundance varies within and across breeds and genetic analyses have shown sufficient genetic variation to permit selection. A major bottleneck for selecting against horn fly abundance is the complexity of measuring...
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| Format: | Article |
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MDPI AG
2022-10-01
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| Series: | Animals |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/12/21/2982 |
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| author | Amanda Warner Ashley Ling Taylor Krause Bradley Heins Nancy Hinkle Dean Pringle Samuel E. Aggrey Romdhane Rekaya |
| author_facet | Amanda Warner Ashley Ling Taylor Krause Bradley Heins Nancy Hinkle Dean Pringle Samuel E. Aggrey Romdhane Rekaya |
| author_sort | Amanda Warner |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Horn flies are a major nuisance to cattle and induce significant economic losses. Fly abundance varies within and across breeds and genetic analyses have shown sufficient genetic variation to permit selection. A major bottleneck for selecting against horn fly abundance is the complexity of measuring fly attraction phenotypes. Easy-to-measure proxy phenotypes could be an attractive option to indirectly estimate fly abundance. In the current study, thrombin was investigated as a potential proxy to assess fly abundance. Fly counts and blood samples were collected on 355 cows. Pearson correlation between subjective fly count and thrombin was −0.13, indicating a decrease in fly abundance with the increase in thrombin concentration. When thrombin was discretized into three classes, there was a 22% difference in fly count between the top and bottom classes. Heritability estimates of thrombin were 0.38 and 0.39 using linear and threshold models, respectively. The correlation between estimated thrombin breeding values and fly count was around −0.18. There was a noticeably lower density of high fly counts among animals with high breeding values for thrombin. These results indicate that thrombin could be used in combination with other biological factors to estimate fly abundance and as a proxy for selection against fly abundance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T19:21:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b7eeaed759eb4c31a00af987cbfde637 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-2615 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T19:21:20Z |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Animals |
| spelling | doaj.art-b7eeaed759eb4c31a00af987cbfde6372023-11-24T03:25:01ZengMDPI AGAnimals2076-26152022-10-011221298210.3390/ani12212982Thrombin as a Potential Proxy to Select for Horn Fly Abundance in Beef CattleAmanda Warner0Ashley Ling1Taylor Krause2Bradley Heins3Nancy Hinkle4Dean Pringle5Samuel E. Aggrey6Romdhane Rekaya7Department of Animal and Dairy Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USADepartment of Animal and Dairy Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USADepartment of Animal and Dairy Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USACollege of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USADepartment of Entomology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USADepartment of Animal and Dairy Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USADepartment of Poultry Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USADepartment of Animal and Dairy Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USAHorn flies are a major nuisance to cattle and induce significant economic losses. Fly abundance varies within and across breeds and genetic analyses have shown sufficient genetic variation to permit selection. A major bottleneck for selecting against horn fly abundance is the complexity of measuring fly attraction phenotypes. Easy-to-measure proxy phenotypes could be an attractive option to indirectly estimate fly abundance. In the current study, thrombin was investigated as a potential proxy to assess fly abundance. Fly counts and blood samples were collected on 355 cows. Pearson correlation between subjective fly count and thrombin was −0.13, indicating a decrease in fly abundance with the increase in thrombin concentration. When thrombin was discretized into three classes, there was a 22% difference in fly count between the top and bottom classes. Heritability estimates of thrombin were 0.38 and 0.39 using linear and threshold models, respectively. The correlation between estimated thrombin breeding values and fly count was around −0.18. There was a noticeably lower density of high fly counts among animals with high breeding values for thrombin. These results indicate that thrombin could be used in combination with other biological factors to estimate fly abundance and as a proxy for selection against fly abundance.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/12/21/2982horn fliesthrombinheritabilitygenetic selection |
| spellingShingle | Amanda Warner Ashley Ling Taylor Krause Bradley Heins Nancy Hinkle Dean Pringle Samuel E. Aggrey Romdhane Rekaya Thrombin as a Potential Proxy to Select for Horn Fly Abundance in Beef Cattle Animals horn flies thrombin heritability genetic selection |
| title | Thrombin as a Potential Proxy to Select for Horn Fly Abundance in Beef Cattle |
| title_full | Thrombin as a Potential Proxy to Select for Horn Fly Abundance in Beef Cattle |
| title_fullStr | Thrombin as a Potential Proxy to Select for Horn Fly Abundance in Beef Cattle |
| title_full_unstemmed | Thrombin as a Potential Proxy to Select for Horn Fly Abundance in Beef Cattle |
| title_short | Thrombin as a Potential Proxy to Select for Horn Fly Abundance in Beef Cattle |
| title_sort | thrombin as a potential proxy to select for horn fly abundance in beef cattle |
| topic | horn flies thrombin heritability genetic selection |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/12/21/2982 |
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