TY - JOUR

T1 - Paratuberculosis in dairy cattle

T2 - Variation of the antibody response in offspring attributable to the dam

AU - Nielsen, S. S.

AU - Gröhn, Y. T.

AU - Quaas, R. L.

AU - Agger, J. F.

PY - 2002/1/1

Y1 - 2002/1/1

N2 - The objective of this study was to examine transmission of paratuberculosis in dairy cattle attributable to the dam. Milk samples were collected from 8131 cows in 110 Danish dairy herds. The level of antibodies to Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis was determined by use of an ELISA. Information on dam and sire was obtained from the Danish Cattle database. The following two data sets were analyzed: Data set A contained all cows ≤ 400 days in milk (n = 7410); data set B contained 1056 dam-daughter pairs present simultaneously in herds at the day of sampling. Cows > 400 days in milk were excluded. Linear mixed models were used to obtain variance components for the effect of sire in data set A and the effect of sire and dam-daughter pairs in data set B. Models for both data sets A and B included information previously shown to confound antibody level and information of the relative prevalence of paratuberculosis in the herd. In data set A, the effect explained by sire was 1.9%, whereas it was 6.3% in data set B. The effect from dam-daughter pairs was 7.7%. Those effects were all significant. It was concluded that the parental contribution was significant, and both heritability of susceptibility and vertical transmission should be considered in any control programs on paratuberculosis in dairy cattle.

AB - The objective of this study was to examine transmission of paratuberculosis in dairy cattle attributable to the dam. Milk samples were collected from 8131 cows in 110 Danish dairy herds. The level of antibodies to Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis was determined by use of an ELISA. Information on dam and sire was obtained from the Danish Cattle database. The following two data sets were analyzed: Data set A contained all cows ≤ 400 days in milk (n = 7410); data set B contained 1056 dam-daughter pairs present simultaneously in herds at the day of sampling. Cows > 400 days in milk were excluded. Linear mixed models were used to obtain variance components for the effect of sire in data set A and the effect of sire and dam-daughter pairs in data set B. Models for both data sets A and B included information previously shown to confound antibody level and information of the relative prevalence of paratuberculosis in the herd. In data set A, the effect explained by sire was 1.9%, whereas it was 6.3% in data set B. The effect from dam-daughter pairs was 7.7%. Those effects were all significant. It was concluded that the parental contribution was significant, and both heritability of susceptibility and vertical transmission should be considered in any control programs on paratuberculosis in dairy cattle.

KW - Antibody variation

KW - Paratuberculosis

KW - Transmission

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=2342427608&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(02)74088-5

DO - 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(02)74088-5

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 11913701

AN - SCOPUS:2342427608

VL - 85

SP - 406

EP - 412

JO - Journal of Dairy Science

JF - Journal of Dairy Science

SN - 0022-0302

IS - 2

ER -