Genetic Diversity in Holstein Being Improved

Today with genomics and sexed semen, the quality of dairy genetics — specifically Holstein — have increased dramatically. Selecting offspring for specific production traits has allowed the industry to continue to increasing pounds of milk while number of dairy cows has continued to decrease. However that has come with a narrowing of the genetic diversity in the Holstein breed. USDA geneticist Harvey Blackburn shares more about the ongoing efforts between USDA, Penn State and members of Holstein industry to expand the gene pool for Holstein cattle through genetic material from the National Animal Germplasm Collection
Blackburn: “To try and broaden that genetic bottle neck that we seem to be having with the Y chromosome in Holstein cattle. How we’ve done that is we’ve evaluated that collection we have here. We have a large number of Holstein bulls in our collection — we have probably over 4,000 different Holstein bulls. We went through that and determined that there are actually two bulls in our collection that have Y chromosomes from a different ancestery. W’eve sent samples out to our collaborators in this project. We’re going to try and breed some cows with those samples. We’re going to intragress that Y chromosome into a number of bull offspring. Essentially the idea is that while we are doing this we will have to increase the milk productivity of these animals in the process.