Efficiency of blood type monitoring during breeding of Sychevskaya breed of cattle in Smolensk region
Provision of an effective stable growth of production of livestock products is possible only by using modern breeding and genetic methods, including immune-genetic ones, in order to improve quality of herds and breeds of animals. Researches were conducted in herds of Sychevskaya breed and its type “Vazuzsky” at five breeding plants and five breeding farms since 1972 to 2013 in accordance with generally accepted zootechnical science methods through the analysis of eleven loci systems of blood groups of cattle of 6683 animals. These enterprises contain 50% of cows of the breed from the existing farms in the region. To date, the active part of the breed (more than 5 thousand cows) is characterized by the following productivity: average annual milk yield is 5 thousand kg of milk, fat content in milk-3.81 %, protein content in milk-3.31%, average live weight of a cow-548 kg. The aim of the work was to study the possibility of using blood groups as genetic markers to speed up the rates of improvement of Sychevskaya breed and its type at the stages of breeding on increase in milk production. For domestic cattle breed Sychevskaya breed it was established for the first time the effectiveness of the use of genetic markers of blood groups in breeding. It enabled to develop a new type “Vazuzsky” using the best domestic and world gene pool of red-and-white Holstein breed. Animals of the new type surpass Sychevskaya breed by 36% according to the level of milk productivity. The accuracy of breeding with the use of blood groups increased by 20%, and the timing of development of new high-yielding genotypes of animals reduced 1.2 times.