Introduction: Dairy cattle breeding have been concentrated on milk yield, protein- and fat percentage, but it is not known how the various protein- and fat components vary between individuals. The program builds on the combined expertise that has been developed and succesfully applied to identify QTL affecting production and functional traits in dairy cattle and other farm animals. The program integrates knowledge of the genetic variation in milk composition with knowledge of the relevance of milk composition for processing and human health.
The goal is to identify genes that contribute to natural genetic variation in milk-quality traits, in particular milk-fat and milk-protein composition.
Results: The information content for microsatellites and SNPs showed that you need 3 SNPs per microsatellite to get the same amount of information about the inheritance of chromosomal segments from parents to offspring in a whole genome scan. There are possibilities to change the milk protein composition in dairy cattle when using selective breeding. The heritabilities were moderate to high for the milk protein composition.
Articles: Schopen et al., 2008. Comparison of information content for microsatellites and SNPs in poultry and cattle. Animal Genetics 39:451-453. Schopen et al., 2008. Genetic parameters for major milk proteins in Dutch Holstein-Friesians. Submitted.