08/15/08 Inheritable disease resistance?

Heritable Disease Resistance Can cattle be bred to resist disease? I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back in one minute with some thought and questions. Geneticists have helped the cattle industry select animals for many economical traits such as growth, marbling, tenderness or milk production. Just like early pioneers finding out what was over the next hill, researchers are exploring the possibility of genetically selecting for another trait that could save the cattle industry millions of dollars annually. According to an article in Beef magazine researchers are trying to determine if disease resistance can be bred into cattle. One disease is getting a lot of attention in the early stages of this investigation; this is bovine respiratory disease (BRD). BRD is the major cause of death in pre-weaned calves and accounts for half of all feedlot cattle deaths. BRD is also referred to as shipping fever or Undifferentiated Fever in Canada. Chris Morris of New Zealand says overall heritability for disease occurrence is .28, while he estimates BRD at .19. These are high enough valuations for selection to be a factor. With any early research, questions arise, such as, if selection is for a specific disease will selection then be for overall disease resistance and is selection for disease resistance or for stress resistance? Many researchers agree stress can be the main culprit in a disease outbreak. I'll bet we get answers to those questions and genetic selection guidelines for disease resistance in the not to distant future. I'm Jeff Keane. Beef Spring 2008