Dairy cattle

Genome-Wide Association Analysis for Ketosis in Dairy Cattle

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Abstract

Ketosis is a metabolic disease characterized by high concentrations of ketone bodies in the blood, urine, and milk of dairy cows. Cows are most susceptible to ketosis during the transition period as energy requirements increase with increased milk production. During this period, cows enter a state of negative energy balance, leading to the development of ketosis costing $203- $289 per case. OMICs technologies such as genomics and metabolomics offer opportunities to improve the resistance to ketosis and develop a selection tool for early prediction for young heifers. Thus, the objectives of this study were to identify genetic variants, genes, and biological pathways that are associated with susceptibility to ketosis via genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) and to detect metabolite biomarkers for early detection via metabolomic analysis of ketosis in Jersey and Holstein cows. The GWAS was performed using univariate mixed linear model on 672 cows with high density single nucleotide polymorphisms (777,000 SNPs) and implemented on GCTA software. The identified 100 significant SNPs were mapped to 21 genes found on chromosomes 1, 2, 13, and 19. In-silico functional analyses detected the cell development and protein modification biological processes as the top enriched processes with the genes associated with ketosis. This study revealed potential biological pathways associated with susceptibility to ketosis. Detected significant SNPs, genes, and biological pathways offer insight into the development of ketosis and opportunity to develop a tool for early management and selection.

Keywords: 2026

How to Cite:

Abo-Ismail, M., Anderson, P., Campos, F., Gallagher, G., Huzzey, J., Kargenian, C., Peterson, D., Pokharel, S., Sargolzaei, M. & Sprayberry, K., (2026) “Genome-Wide Association Analysis for Ketosis in Dairy Cattle”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2286936. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.24174

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