Genomics can contribute to selection to improve bottle teats in tropical beef genotypes

Beef CRC research showed that a subjective score of teat size (small (1) to large (5)) was heritable in tropically adapted Brahman (BRAH) and Tropical Composite (TCOMP) cows, and that higher teat scores (bottle teats) were genetically associated with higher calf losses from birth to weaning. Teat traits are only expressed in females, and the research showed that they tended to display more variation in later life; making them ideal candidates for genomic selection. Front and rear teat scores (TSF and TSB respectively) were recorded in cows at calving through up to 6 matings. From these, a trait was created which described a cows maximum lifetime teat score (TSM), as well as a binary trait which distinguished cows that received a teat score of 4 or 5 at any time through their lives (1) from those which did not (0) (MSB). Results confirmed the heritability of TSF and TSB (h2 = 0.30 to 0.40), and variation in both TSM and MSB was also shown to have a genetic basis (h2 = 0.49 and 0.46 respectively for BRAH, and 0.29 and 0.22 for TCOMP). Genome wide association analyses identified large numbers of significant SNPs but did not suggest a likelihood of identifying a small number of SNPs of large effect. It is unlikely therefore, that a simple diagnostic test (based a small number of SNPs) could be developed for the traits. Conventional genomic selection, however, is likely to present opportunities to improving teat traits by selection in tropically adapted beef genotypes, with accuracies of genomic prediction of 0.23 to 0.35 for TSM and MSB across both genotypes.