Diversity of cattle breeds in Slovakia

Abstract

The aim of the study was to assess the diversity based on the pedigree information in three cattle breeds. The pedigree information was available from The Breeding Services of the Slovak Republic, s. e. The pedigree analyzed populations consisted of (reference populations in brackets) 274,756 (94,357) Holstein, 109,686 (36,949) Slovak Spotted and 9,756 (2,501) Slovak Pinzgau cattle. Indices of pedigrees completeness differed by breeds but in the 5th generations their values were 18.4 % in Slovak Pinzgau, 56 % in Slovak Spotted breed and 63.8 % in Holstein. Generation interval of Slovak Pinzgau was 7.2 years, tending to be shorter as the size of breed population was bigger. There were 30 % inbred Slovak Pinzgau, 42.8 % in Slovak Spotted and 83 % in Holstein cows and sires in the reference populations. The average inbreeding coefficient ranged from 0.36 % for the Slovak Spotted to 1.32 % for the Holstein. The highest average individual increase of inbreeding ∆Fi = 0.29 % was found for the Holstein and the average individual relatedness coefficient AR = 0.8 % in Slovak Spotted cattle. Inbreeding trends in the reference populations as well as purebred animals were positive with increasing average values by animal birth years since 1990.