Genetic variation of milk fatty acid composition between and within dairy cattle breeds

184 Pages·2014·2.84 MB·English

by  Eelco Beukers

Genetic variation of milk fatty acid
composition between and within dairy cattle
breeds

Myrthe Maurice – Van Eijndhoven
Thesis committee

Promotors
Prof. Dr J.A.M. van Arendonk
Professor of Animal Breeding and Genetics
Wageningen University

Prof. Dr R.F. Veerkamp
Professor of Numerical Genetics and Genomics
Wageningen University

Co-promotor
Dr M.P.L. Calus
Senior researcher, Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre
Wageningen UR Livestock Research

Other members
Dr P. Berg, Nordic Genetic Resource Center, Ås, Norway
Dr A.J. Buitenhuis, Aarhus University, Tjele, Denmark
Prof. Dr A.C.M. van Hooijdonk, Wageningen University
Prof. Dr E. Verrier, INRA/AgroParisTech, Paris, France

This research was conducted under the auspices of the Graduate School of
Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences (WIAS).
Genetic variation of milk fatty acid
composition between and within dairy cattle
breeds

Myrthe Maurice – Van Eijndhoven

Thesis

submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of doctor
at Wageningen University
by the authority of the Rector Magnificus
Prof. Dr M.J. Kropff,
in the presence of the
Thesis Committee appointed by the Academic Board
to be defended in public
on Tuesday 9 December 2014
at 4 p.m. in the Aula.
Maurice – Van Eijndhoven, M.H.T.
Genetic variation of milk fatty acid composition between and within dairy cattle
breeds,
184 pages.

PhD thesis, Wageningen University, Wageningen, NL (2014)
With references, with summaries in English and Dutch

ISBN 978-94-6257-148-8
Abstract
Maurice – Van Eijndhoven, M.H.T. (2014). Genetic variation of milk fatty acid
composition between and within dairy cattle breeds. PhD thesis, Wageningen
University, the Netherlands

Fat is one of the main components in bovine milk and comprises a large number of
individual fatty acids (FA). The composition of FA in milk varies considerably due to
differences in the genetics and nutrition of cows and an increasing interest in the
possibilities for modifying FA composition can be noticed nowadays. In this thesis
two fields of interest were combined, namely: production of milk with specific milk
fat composition and conservation of native cattle breeds. Therewith, the overall
objective of this thesis was to investigate the variability of detailed milk FA
composition between and within different dairy cattle breeds, including the
mainstream Holstein Friesian (HF) and Jersey, and the native dual purpose breeds
Meuse-Rhine-Yssel (MRY), Groningen White Headed (GWH) and Dutch Friesian (DF)
in the Netherlands. For this study the accuracy of mid-infrared (MIR) spectrometry
was evaluated for predicting FA composition in different breeds. Differences of milk
FA composition within and between breeds were investigated using MIR and Gas
Chromatography (GC) information. Finally, similarities in genomic variation
associated with detailed milk fat composition between the mainstream HF breed
and native dual purpose breeds were studied. Results show that MIR is an accurate
method for predicting FA composition among different breeds and countries.
Evaluating the FA composition in different breeds, differences were found in milk
FA composition among herds using different cattle breeds in the Netherlands,
based on detailed milk FA measurements using GC. Evaluating the FA composition
in milk between and within breeds using a large dataset that included MIR spectra
of milk from cows from a range of farms using one or more breeds, in general, only
minor breed differences in FA composition were found and HF showed more
genetic variation in FA composition compared to MRY. Furthermore, differences
were detected between the native breeds MRY, DF and GWH in genomic variations
of regions that are associated with FA composition in HF, while most variation in
these main regions was clearly observed in HF. Overall, it was concluded that no
large differences existed in milk FA composition among the native Dutch dual
purpose breeds and the mainstream HF breed. It is suggested, however, that
selecting specific FA composition differences in farms using different breeds in the
Netherlands can attribute to modifying the FA composition in bovine milk
production.

5

Contents

5 Abstract
9 1 – General introduction
19 2 – Milk fat composition of 4 cattle breeds in the Netherlands
31 3 – Validation of fatty acid predictions in milk using mid-infrared
spectrometry across cattle breeds
51 4 – Differences in milk fat composition predicted by mid-infrared
spectrometry among dairy cattle breeds in the Netherlands
83 5 – Heritability of milk fat composition is considerably lower for Meuse-
Rhine-Yssel cows compared to Holstein Friesian
103 6 – Differences in genomic variation of milk fat composition in Holstein
versus Meuse-Rhine-Yssel, Dutch Friesian, and Groningen White Headed
cattle breeds
135 7 – General discussion
155 Summary
161 Samenvatting
167 Dankwoord
173 Curriculum vitae
177 Publications
181 Training and supervision plan
184 Colophon
7

1

General introduction