Dairy cattle

Genomic studies of host resistance to contagious and non-contagious foot lesions in dairy cattle

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Abstract

Digital dermatitis (DD) and sole ulcers (SU) constitute contagious and non-contagious foot conditions, respectively, causing lameness and severe welfare problems in dairy cattle. The objective of this study was to investigate the genetic architecture and correlation of animal resistance to DD and SU using detailed phenotypic, genotypic and pedigree data on 2,031 Holstein cows reared in four commercial farms in the United Kingdom. The feet of each cow were clinically examined by a veterinarian team for DD and SU four times: pre-calving, shortly after calving, near peak of milk production, and in late lactation. Two phenotypes were developed, one for each condition, where cows were scored as (i) healthy if there were no lesions in any clinical examination and (ii) diseased otherwise. Genome-wide genotypes imputed to a 80K Single Nucleotide Polymorphism panel were available on all cows together with extensive pedigree from the national genetic evaluation comprising 14,092 animal records. We conducted bivariate single-step genome-wide association analyses to estimate trait (co)variance components and identify individual genomic markers and regions linked to DD (37% infected animals) and SU (11% affected animals). Statistically significant (P KHDRBS3 (KH RNA binding domain containing, signal transduction associated 3) and RBL2 (RB transcriptional corepressor like 2). Different genomic regions and candidate genes were detected for the two phenotypes. In conclusion, host resistance to the development of contagious (DD) and non-contagious (SU) foot lesions appears to be under distinct and largely polygenic control. Both studied traits exhibited significant genetic variation, which confirms that animal resistance to either condition can be independently improved with selective breeding.

Keywords: 2026

How to Cite:

Tarsani, E., Li, B., Anagnostopoulos, A., Barden, M., Griffiths, B., Bedford, C., Coffey, M., Psifidi, A., Oikonomou, G. & Banos, G., (2026) “Genomic studies of host resistance to contagious and non-contagious foot lesions in dairy cattle”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2286379. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.23970

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