Skip to main content

Exploration of lagged relationships between mastitis and milk yield in dairy cows using a Bayesian structural equation Gaussian-threshold model

Abstract

A Gaussian-threshold model is described under the general framework of structural equation models for inferring simultaneous and recursive relationships between binary and Gaussian characters, and estimating genetic parameters. Relationships between clinical mastitis (CM) and test-day milk yield (MY) in first-lactation Norwegian Red cows were examined using a recursive Gaussian-threshold model. For comparison, the data were also analyzed using a standard Gaussian-threshold, a multivariate linear model, and a recursive multivariate linear model. The first 180 days of lactation were arbitrarily divided into three periods of equal length, in order to investigate how these relationships evolve in the course of lactation. The recursive model showed negative within-period effects from (liability to) CM to test-day MY in all three lactation periods, and positive between-period effects from test-day MY to (liability to) CM in the following period. Estimates of recursive effects and of genetic parameters were time-dependent. The results suggested unfavorable effects of production on liability to mastitis, and dynamic relationships between mastitis and test-dayMYin the course of lactation. Fitting recursive effects had little influence on the estimation of genetic parameters. However, some differences were found in the estimates of heritability, genetic, and residual correlations, using different types of models (Gaussian-threshold vs. multivariate linear).

(To access the full article, please see PDF)

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiao-Lin Wu.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wu, XL., Heringstad, B. & Gianola, D. Exploration of lagged relationships between mastitis and milk yield in dairy cows using a Bayesian structural equation Gaussian-threshold model. Genet Sel Evol 40, 333 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1186/1297-9686-40-4-333

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1297-9686-40-4-333

Keywords