Source: COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to
GENETIC IMPROVEMENT IN BEEF MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
HATCH
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1006304
Grant No.
(N/A)
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jul 1, 2015
Project End Date
Jun 30, 2020
Grant Year
(N/A)
Program Code
[(N/A)]- (N/A)
Recipient Organization
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
FORT COLLINS,CO 80523
Performing Department
Animal Science
Non Technical Summary
The beef industry is multi-tiered with seedstock breeders producing animals primarily for breeding purposes and serving as the source from which genetic improvement influences the entire industry. Commercial breeders then purchase breeding animals from the seedstock sector that are used to produce progeny marketed into the stocker and/or feedlot industries ultimately yielding a product for public consumption. Therefore genetic change in the breeding industry ultimately influences every sector of the industry including the consumer.Technologies for choosing the genetically superior breeding animals continue to evolve and improve with the ability to measure new traits and the development of ever more accurate genomic marker tools. Breeders struggle with the ever-growing genetic information and are challenged as to how best they might use these selection tools in various environments, under fluctuating economic conditions while maintaining animal health and well-being, long-term operation sustainability and ultimately consumer acceptability. We will address this challenge producing selection tools that manage and incorporate the wealth of information and vagaries of production. Using DNA samples, pedigree information, and performance, marketing, and economic information from research and industry animal populations, we will develop selection tools that will help producers use these technologies. Most importantly, these tools will provide economically sound and sustainable approaches for herd improvement that also values animal adaptability characteristics such as health, well-being, and efficiency of feed utilization.These tools will be delivered to the industry through education efforts at various producer meetings (e.g. breed association annual conventions, Beef Improvement Federation annual meetings) and through our ongoing efforts of the Center for Genetic Evaluation of Livestock.
Animal Health Component
40%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
40%
Developmental
40%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
3033310108025%
3033310301015%
3036230108015%
6013310108015%
6016230108010%
3073310301010%
3073310108010%
Knowledge Area
303 - Genetic Improvement of Animals; 601 - Economics of Agricultural Production and Farm Management; 307 - Animal Management Systems;

Subject Of Investigation
3310 - Beef cattle, live animal; 6230 - Marketing systems and sectors thereof;

Field Of Science
1080 - Genetics; 3010 - Economics;
Goals / Objectives
The primary goal of this project is to continue development and enhancement of flexible, user-friendly selection tools that can be utilized by commercial and seedstock producers of beef cattle. The premise of these tools will be to improve profitability through improved selection of breeding animals and better design of mating systems. The use of these tools will provide producers with the ability to evaluate selection and mating alternatives and ultimately produce better performing offspring for more sustainable operations. Our specific objectives include:Develop and improve methods for integration of costs/incomes of production, genetic prediction technologies, and underlying biological systems (such as the interaction of nutrition, reproduction, and genetic makeup) into selection decisions accounting for current levels of animal performance and management.Identify producer-specific economic data critical to proper model parameterization and prediction of profitability differences.Develop methodology to account for value of production and genetic improvement given the time-lag for realization of those improvements and alternatives endpoints for marketing animals.Improve understanding of underlying biological systems including genomic and quantitative basis of heterotic effects with the genomic basis driven by information gleaned from of all the "omics" disciplines (i.e., genome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, phenome).Develop methods for genetic evaluation of performance traits with sparse phenotypic data (e.g. feed intake, health, and grazing distribution) due to expense of or difficulty in measurement but with more plentiful genomic information.Validation/parameterization of deliverable products
Project Methods
We will use a multi-pronged approaches to perform the research associated with meeting the objectives of the project as these areas require expertise from various disciplines and industry groups.The team will incorporate expertise of the participating economist to identify weaknesses of the current tool and to develop methodologies for incorporating appropriate methodology to account for the time-value of profitability changes resulting from genetic improvement. This will be the primary focus to satisfy objectives 1, 2, and 3. As new external research is published describing the interactions of the system, such as genotype by environment interactions, these results will be evaluated for potential incorporation into the system and will be secondary to improving the economic component of the tool.To meet the needs of objective 4, the team will primarily rely on previously published research given that these effects and alternatives require substantial animal resources and historical performance information. The estimation of heterotic effects typically comes from designed crossbreeding studies; however, many of these studies have not reported the influence of heterosis on threshold traits such as heifer pregnancy and stayability. The statistical methodology to evaluate animal differences in performance of these threshold traits has only recently become computationally feasible. As such, determining the effects of heterosis on these traits will require additional research likely using field data from the cooperators of the CSU Center for Genetic Evaluation of Livestock. Given that the Red Angus Association of America has indicated interest in funding research using the tool to develop indexes for their constituency, their database is a likely candidate and includes information on over 2 million animals. Most importantly, the indexes will also include genomic information, typically known as molecular breeding values (MBV). The research will involve continually improving MBV with advancing genomic-phenomic technology and information. For example, initial MBV were based on SNP-chip data from the ladder-based BovineSNP50 and HD products. However, research involving all the omics will lead to understanding of causal mutations and loss of function alleles. Therefore, future MBV will be a blend of the initial SNP in linkage with QTL or genes of interest and the causative mutations. Genome wide association studies (GWAS) using BovineSNP50 and HD have become voluminous in literature as the laboratory processes and statistical analyses have been adopted by many of the scientists working in beef cattle breeding. However, identifying causal mutations will require substantial research efforts as it requires collecting tissues from animal research models that represent the economically relevant traits of beef production systems. An example of such a scenario is genetic improvement to reduce high altitude disease in cattle. This disease is of low frequency, so an indicator trait of pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) is measured on seedstock by veterinarians. This measure can be used for EPD calculation; however accuracy of the EPD is usually minimal because of the limited number of cattle with the phenotype. Therefore, transcriptomic-identification of causal mutations through study of differential expression of genes from high and low PAP animals could greatly improve MBV that can be generated now with GWAS. The CSU Beef Improvement center is currently generating these various forms of omic data as to be used in this project. Specifically, BIC possess genotypes from ~2,000 Angus cattle with BovineSNP50 data and 66 cattle with BovineSNPHD data. We also possess RNA sequence data from cardio-pulmonary tissues of high and low PAP steers (n = 20/group).Validation and parameterization will be ongoing. The key to successful validation is compiling sufficient animal (phenome and genome) and economic performance data. The CSU Beef Improvement Center has been collecting extensive data since 1986 and will serve as the validation population for the cow/calf component of the models. This facility is especially appropriate for these validations in that it is operated as a self-funded beef cattle research entity with operations funded totally by ranch income. In the past decades (since 2000), this facility has been retaining ownership on steers through the feedlot and will also serve to validate the post-weaning addition to the decision support tools such as selection indices preliminarily completed by Zeng (2013).

Progress 07/01/15 to 06/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences during this reporting period were the academic and research community, beef cattle industry professionals including managers and owners of large animal feeding companies, bred association staff, cattle breeders, and artificial insemination company personnel. Additionally, an additional audience was targeted during this time period--high school agriculture educators. The scientific community was informed through 9 presentations, abstract, and posters; and industry professionals informed through 4 presentations. A workshop was also given targeting high school educators in Colorado. Peer-reviewed journal articles (8) and conference proceedings (5) articles were also published targeting the scientific community. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has provided training opportunities for 7 graduate students, 4 undergraduate students and 1 post-doctoral associate. In the current year, most training activities were associated with the analysis of data, collection of new traits based on results of previous studies. Data from this project continues to be used in both undergraduate and graduate courses at Colorado State University. Additionally, the data from this project is serving as the basis from which to submit requests for further funding. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Despite challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we were successful disseminating results through a variety of approaches. We published 4 peer-reviewed journal articles, 5 peer-reviewed proceedings papers for the scientific community. Additionally, we presented results through 4 virtual conferences and/or producer workshops targeting industry professionals. Some of the results from this project were presented at the annual Beef Improvement Federation Research Symposium (held online this year) with over 1000 registrants. A workshop was also held face to face prior to the Covid Pandemic, that focused on educating high agriculture teachers on the challenges and research associated with pulmonary hypertension. Approximately 40 Colorado Ag-educators attended that event from across the state. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The occurrence of feedlot heart disease/failure is increasing and some suggest that incidence has doubled in the last decade (Neary et al., 2016) with some suggestion that the condition is related to selection for other performance measures (e.g. feed efficiency or carcass merit). Establishing the relationship amongst these traits would help breeders determine whether selection for economically relevant traits might increase the chance for heart failure, and if so, allow them to adjust their genetic improvement programs accordingly. To further investigate these relationships, 89 steers born at the John E. Rouse Colorado State University Beef Improvement Center were raised until weaning at the facility, then transferred to the CSU Feed Intake Unit near Fort Collins, Colorado where individual feed intakes were measured for 70d with the animal subsequently transferred to the Eastern Colorado Research Center where they were fed to a perceived visual grade of choice. During the post-weaning development period, pulmonary arterial pressures--an indicator of pulmonary hypertension--were collected on each individual, as well as were growth (e.g. average dry matter intake, average feed to gain ratio, average daily gain, and total gain) and carcass measures including hot carcass weight, marbling, preliminary and calculated yield grade; back fat, rib eye are and USDA yield grade. Using a multiple linear regression each phenotype was regressed on heart score and age. Heart Score (1=normal heart morphology to 5=most severely remodelled heart) was significantly associated with pulmonary arterial pressure and approached importance for average daily dry matter intake and feed to gain ratio. For the beef cattle breeder, results suggest that selection for heavier weights and improved carcass quality/quantity will not increase incidence of feedlot heart failure--a welcome result. Although selection for improved feed utilization may impact that incidence. The results of this small piece of work is directly applicable to goals 1, 4 and 5 in the original project.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Pierce, C. F., S. E. Speidel, S. J. Coleman, R. M. Enns, D. W. Bailey, J. F. Medrano, A. Canovas, P. J. Meiman, L. D. Howery, W. F. Mandeville and M. G. Thomas. 2020. Genome-Wide association studies of beef cow terrain-use traits using Bayesian Multiple-SNP regression. Livest. Sci. 232. doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2019.103900
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Saad, H. M., M. G. Thomas, S. E. Speidel, R. K. Peel, W. M. Frasier, R. M. Enns. 2020. Differential response from selection for low birth weight versus high calving ease in American Simmental beef cattle. J. Anim. Sci. 98:1-10. doi:10.1093/jas/skaa162.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Briggs, E.A., R.M. Enns, M.G. Thomas, and S.E. Speidel. 2020. Evaluation of the genetic relationship between pulmonary arterial pressure with feedlot and carcass performance. Transl. Anim. Sci. 4(Suppl. 1):S98-S102. doi:10.1093/tas/txaa113.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Sanchez-Castro, M.A., M.G. Thomas, R.M. Enns, and S.E. Speidel. 2020. Genetic prediction for first-service conception rate in Angus heifers using a random regression model. Transl. Anim. Sci. 4(Suppl. 1):S43-47. doi:10.1093/tas/txaa094
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Zimprich, T.R., S.E. Speidel, D.W. Schafer, B. Lashell, T.N. Holt, R.M. Enns, S.E. Cunningham, and M.G. Thomas. 2020. Repeated measures of PAP at different elevations in beef bulls in Colorado. Transl. Anim. Sci. 4(Suppl. 1):S113-S117. doi:10.1093/tas/txaa116
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Briggs, E. A., S. E. Speidel, R. M. Enns, M. G. Thomas, T. N. Holt. 2020. Evaluation of the genetic relationship amongst high elevation pulmonary arterial pressure, feedlot and carcass performance traits. J. Anim. Sci. 98:197. Suppl. 4. doi:10.1093/jas/skaa278.363
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Crawford, N. F., K. J. Jennings, A. Canovas, J. F. Medrano, A. Islas-Trejo, R. D. Brown, S. J. Coleman, S. E. Speidel, R. M. Enns, K. R. Stenmark, and M. G. Thomas. 2020. Genes regulating calcium availability and utilization in Angus steers may be useful in identifying cattle with reduced susceptibility to pulmonary hypertension in high altitude beef production systems. Plant and Animal Genome XXXVII Abstract PO0369
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Gonzalez-Murray, R. A., M. A. Sanchez-Castro, M. G. Thomas, S. E. Speidel, and R. M. Enns. 2020. Heterosis and its potential influence on pulmonary arterial pressure in beef cattle. J. Anim. Sci. 98:208-209. Suppl. 4. doi:10.1093/jas/skaa278.384
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Heffernan, K. R., S. E. Speidel, M. G. Thomas, R. M. Enns, and T. N. Holt. 2020. Phenotypic relationships between heart score and feed efficiency, carcass and pulmonary arterial pressure traits. J. Anim. Sci. 98:204-205. Suppl. 4. doi:10.1093/jas/skaa278.377
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Krasfur, G., R. Brown, M. Thomas, M. Culbertson, T. Holt, S. Speidel, R. Enns, K. Stenmark, M . Li, S. Riddle, R. Bowen. 2020. Metabolism and inflammation predict cardiopulmonary disease outcomes in fattening beef cattle: histopathology. CRWAD. Abstract 284
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Pierce, C. F., R. S. Miller, S. E. Speidel, and T. J. Smyser. 2020. Genome-wide association analysis of admixed feral swine (Sus scrofa) reveals quantitative trait loci associated with Aujeszkys Disease (Pseudorabies Virus). Plant and Animal Genome XXXVII Abstract PO0413
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Thomas, M. G., J. Dillon, D. Bailey, S. E. Speidel, and R. M. Enns. 2020. Grazing distribution of beef cattle: acronyms of technology and spatial measures. J. Anim. Sci. 98:125. Suppl. 3. doi:10.1093/jas/skaa054.214.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Gonzalez-Murray, R.A., M.A. Sanchez-Castro, M.G. Thomas, S.E. Speidel, and R.M. Enns. 2020. Heterosis and its potential influence on pulmonary arterial pressure on beef cattle. Transl. Anim. Sci. 4(Suppl. 1):S118-S121. doi:10.1093/tas/txaa117
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Heffernan, K.R., M.G. Thomas, R.M. Enns, and S.E. Speidel. 2020. Phenotypic relationships between heart score and feed efficiency, carcass, and pulmonary arterial pressure traits. Transl. Anim. Sci. 4(Suppl. 1):S103-107. doi:10.1093/tas/txaa114
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Zhai, C., R. J. Delmore, I. Geornaras, S. E. Speidel, T. N. Holt, M. G. Thomas, R. M. Enns, M. N. Nair. 2020. Pulmonary arterial pressure in cattle influences beef color during retail display. J. Anim. Sci. 98:363. Suppl. 4. doi:10.1093/as/skaa278.637.


Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences during this reporting period were the academic and research community, beef cattle industry professionals including managers and owners of large animal feeding companies, breed association staff, and cattle breeders. The scientific community was informed through 15 different presentations at annual scientific meetings. Breeders were informed through 5 extension articles and presentations, and multiple meetings with individual producers. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training activities associated with the project include mentoring and participation of 0 graduate students and 1 post-doctoral association. In the course of the last year this team has been primarily involved with data and sample collection and with the analysis of data resulting from this project. Data from the project continues to be used in both undergraduate and graduate courses including principles of animal breeding at Colorado State University with over 100 undergraduate students enrolled this past year. Data from this project resulted in one thesis and one dissertation completed in the last year. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The scientific community was informed through 15 different presentations at annual scientific meetings. Breeders were informed through 5 extension articles and presentations. We continue to meet with individual producers and feedlot managers to further disseminate our information to those who will most benefit from the outcomes of this project. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next year we will continue to collect performance and economic information from beef production operations. These efforts fall under objectives 1 and 2. These efforts require economic information from each sector which we are currently accumulating so as to be able to investigate the economic impact of changes in one sector on profitability in others. We also continue to emphasize biological research on feedlot morbidity and mortalities from both bovine respiratory disease and pulmonary hypertension perspectives with this research falling under objectives 4 and 5.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During this reporting cycle, much of our efforts continued to focus on Objectives 4 and 5 of the project.Our goals are to improve understanding of underlying biological systems including genomic and quantitative basis of heterotic effects with the genomic basis driven by information gleaned from of all the "omics" disciplines (i.e., genome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, phenome), and to develop methods for genetic evaluation of performance traits with sparse phenotypic data (e.g. feed intake, health, and grazing distribution) due to expense of or difficulty in measurement but with more plentiful genomic information. An important aspect of beef cattle production is livestock grazing distribution especially in western rangelands and global regions where extensive grazing occurs. This is both economically relevant and environmentally important. Initial efforts have yielded evidence for genetic variability in grazing distribution and movement. Outcomes that we continue to investigate are the preference of cows to graze steep slopes or more gentle terrain, and a willingness to graze extended distances from water. In a study we completed in the last year our objective was to perform genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for six terrain-use traits (slope, elevation, vertical climb, distance traveled from water, rolling index, and rough index) in which we explored single-SNP associations and also surveyed the genome in consecutive, one mega-base windows. We also studied underlying positional and functional candidate genes using bioinformatic tools to identify possible pleiotropic effects with other traits. Global positioning system (GPS) collars were used to track terrain-use patterns for 330 beef cows across 14 rangeland operations located in the western U.S. and Illumina BovineHD and BovineSNP50 SNP arrays were used to collect genomic data. Our analyses revealed 19 QTL that have been previously and are associated with health and production traits in dairy and beef cattle as well as 8 positional candidate genes involved in oxygen homeostasis, feed efficiency, and growth. Results from that study suggest that beef cattle terrain-use traits are polygenic and may be pleiotropic with other production traits. Providing evidence that selection for grazing behavior traits should result in genetic improvement but potential for correlated response to selection in other traits is also possible. Conversely, information in these other traits, some more easily measured might help increase the accuracy of selection and rate of genetic improvement in grazing distribution.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: Bovine Respiratory Diseaseselection tools on the horizon. R. Mark Enns. Beef Quality Assurance Advisory Committee of the National Cattlemens Beef Association. Fort Collins, CO. June 4, 2019
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: M.A. Sanchez-Castro, M.G. Thomas, R.M. Enns, and S.E. Speidel. 2019. Stability of genetic predictions for stayability using random regression models that include end points beyond 6 yr of age. Transl. Anim. Sci. 2019.3:1678-1682. doi:10.1093/tas/txs056.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: K.J. Jennings, G.M. Krafsur, R.D. Brown, T.N. Holt, S.J. Coleman, S.E. Speidel, R.M. Enns, K.R. Stenmark, and M.G. Thomas. 2019. Characterizing the impact of altitude and finishing system on mean pulmonary arterial pressure and carcass characteristics in Angus cattle. Transl. Anim. Sci. 2019.3:1669-1672. doi:10.1093/tas/txs052.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: C.L. Gonzalez-Berrios, L.D.P. Senedino, H. Georges, J. Bishop, H.Van Campen, M.G. Thomas, and T.R. Hansen. 2019. Transcriptome analysis of embryo mortality in Holstein cows. Proc. Rocky Mount. Repro. Sci. Symp. Abstract 20. May 3, 2019, Fort Collins, CO.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: C.L. Gonzalez-Berrios, L.D.P. Senedino. H. Georges, J. Bishop, H. Van Campen, M.G. Thomas, and T.R. Hansen. 2019. Embryo mortality: a transcriptome perspective in Holstein cows. Proc. Society for Study of Reprod. Abstract P451
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: A. Canovas, P.A.S. Fonseca, M. Muniz, L. Albuquerque, M.R.S. Fortes, F.S. Schenkel, L.R. Porto-Neto, M.G. Thomas, and A. Reverter. 2019. Multi-trait meta-analysis to identify markers with pleiotropic effect in economically important traits in beef cattle. Proc. Int. Soc. Animal Genet. 37th Conf. Lleida, Spain. Abstract p. 182.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: M.G. Thomas, S.E. Speidel, K. Retallick, S.P. Miller, D. Moser, and R.M. Enns. 2019. Genome-enhanced approaches to improve high-altitude adaptability of Angus cattle. Plant and Animal Genome XXVII. Abstract W194.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: L. Tussell, I. David, A. Canovas, M.G. Thomas, and A. Reverter. 2019. Multi-variate mixed models for the normalization of RNA-Seq data: application to onset of puberty in beef cattle. Proc. Int. Soc. Animal Genet. 37th Conf. Lleida, Spain. Abstract p. 172.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: M.S. Tahir, L.T. Nguyen, B.L. Schulz, G.A. Boe-Hansen, M.G. Thomas, S.S. Moore, and M.R.S. Fortes. 2019. Proteomics recapitulates markers regulating pathways relevant to ovarian activity in pubertal Bos indicus heifers. Proc. Int. Soc. Animal Genet. 37th Conf. Lleida, Spain. Abstract p. 110.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: M.G. Thomas, M.M. Culbertson, T. Holt, R.D. Brown, G.M. Krafsur, S.E. Speidel, R.M. Enns, R. Bowen, M. Li, and K. Stenmark. 2019. Metabolism and inflammation predict cardiopulmonary disease outcomes in fattening beef cattle.: Animal Model. 100th Conf. Res. Workers Anim. Disease. P165, Chicago, Ill. November 3-5, 2019.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: C.F. Pierce, S.E. Speidel, S.J. Coleman, R.M. Enns, D.W. Bailey, J.F. Medrano, A. Canovas, P.J. Meiman, L.D. Howery, W.F. Mandeville, and M.G. Thomas. 2019. Genome-wide association studies of beef cow terrain-use traits using Bayesian Multiple SNP regression. Livest. Sci. 2019-574. Accepted December 13, 2019.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: M.S. Tahir, L.T. Nguyen, B.L. Schulz, G.A. Boe-Hansen, M.G. Thomas, S.S. Moore, L.Y. Lau, and M.R.S. Fortes. 2019. Proteomics recapitulates ovarian proteins relevant to puberty and fertility in Brahman heifers. Genes 10:923. Doi:10.3390/genes10110923.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: B.C. Krehbiel, M.G. Thomas, C.S. Wilson, S.E. Speidel, R.M. Enns, S.R. Paiva, and H.D. Blackburn. 2019. Evaluation of genetic structure across U.S. climate zones using prominent AI sires of Red Angus cattle. Livestock Sci. 225:26-31. doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2019.04.012. both
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: G.M. Krafsur, J.M. Neary, F. Garry, T. Holt, D.H. Gould, G.L. Mason, M.G. Thomas, R.M. Enns, R.M. Tuder, M.P. Heaton, R.D. Brown, and K.R. Stenmark. 2019. Cardiopulmonary remodeling in fattened beef cattle: a naturally occurring large animal model of obesity-associated pulmonary hypertension with left heart disease. Pulm. Circ. 9:1-13. doi:10.1177/2045894018796804


Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences during this reporting period were the academic/research community, beef cattle industry professionals including managers of large animal feeding companies, veterinarians, breed association staff, and breeders. The scientific community was informed through 25 presentations at annual meetings, the largest of which was attended by over 1200 scientific professionals. A biennial Pulmonary Arterial Pressure Summit was also held during this period focused on veterinarians as a means to update on the latest PAP measuring approaches, genetic tools for reducing PAP, and pending guidelines for PAP measurement. The Department of Animal Sciences, led by PI's in this project, organized and held the 50th annual Beef Improvement Federation, attended by over 600 industry professionals. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training activities associated with this project include mentoring and participation of 9 graduate students and 1 post-doctoral associate. In the course of the last year, these people have been involved with collecting data and samples associated with the project in the field. Additionally data from this project has been used in both undergraduate and graduate courses, as well as for student thesis and dissertation research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have disseminated information through 24 presentations at various scientific, breeder, and livestock professional focused meetings. As outlined in the target audience, we organized and held the 50th Annual Meeting of the Beef Improvement Federation, and also the 2018 Pulmonary Arterial Pressure Summit. The former had over 600 attendees from the industry and the later over 40 veterinarians, interns, and graduate students. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are cooperating with some of our industry research and genetic evaluation partners to investigate development of new selection indexes that combine genetic improvement tools with the economics (cost and revenue) of beef production. These efforts will fall under objectives 1 and 2. Also during the next year we will continue work designed to improve our understanding of pulmonary hypertension and its effects on the beef industry under objectives 4 and 5.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During this reporting year, primary work focused on objectives 4 and 5 of the project. With increasing incidence of heart failures in the feedlot understanding of pulmonary hypertension in beef cattle is essential. Historically, high mountain disease (aka brisket disease) typically occured in animals residing above 1524 mof elevation. However, reports increasingly indicate a rise heart failures at elevations between 1067 mand 1524 mof elevation in feedlots. Anectdotallly this seems to effect animals late in the feeding period as they near fat and weight targets for harvest. If a relationship is verified between high altitude-induced pulmonary hypertension and the pulmonary hypertension occuring in moderate elevation feedlots when animals are nearing harvest, historical pulmonary hypertension research from the last 100 years could be used to help address and potentially alleviate moderate elevation hypertension. For the beef industry this would result in lower mortality rates, improving animal welfare, sustainability, and profitability of production. In one study conducted over the last year, we have completed data collection to evaluate PAP (pulmonary arterial pressure; an indicator of pulmonary hypertension) and growth of steers finished at moderate or high elevation with varied lengths of post-weaning grazing. Forty steers from Coloradom Sate University's Beef Improvement Center (2,150 m) with PAP averaging 41.5 ± 0.5 mmHg were randomly assigned to one of four management groups: 1) traditional stocker and finishing system (i.e., grown and finished at 1,420 m beginning at 10 months of age), 2) extended stocker grazing at high elevation (2,150 m), but finishing at 1,420 m at 18 months of age, 3) stocker and finishing at high elevation (2,150 m) at 24 months of age, or 4) grass finishing (2,150 m) > 24 months of age. Weight and PAP data were analyzed with a repeated measures model. The effects of group, PAP-date, and theinteraction had a significant influence on PAP (P< 0.01). Steers in the stocker-finishing group at high elevation had higher PAP than the moderate elevation finishing groups (52.9 > 46.5 ± 1.7 mmHg). Pre-harvest live weight averaged 621.6 ± 11.8 kg in all three grain finishing groups, whereas grass finishing steers weighed 436.6 ± 11.5 kg on these dates. The fattening process appeared to be related to PH independent of elevation and may be related to the high-caloric finishing diet fed. These were reported with more details in the abstract by Kaysie, et al. (2018) listed in the publications section of the report.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Pauling, R.C., S.E. Speidel, M.G. Thomas, T.N. Holt, and R.M. Enns. 2018. Evaluation of moderate to high elevation on pulmonary arterial pressure measures in Angus cattle. J. Anim. Sci. 96:3599-3605. doi:10.1093/jas/sky292.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: S.E. Speidel, B.A. Buckley, R.J. Boldt, R.M. Enns, J. Lee, M.L. Spangler, and M.G. Thomas. 2018. Genome wide association of heifer pregnancy and stayability in Red Angus cattle. J. Anim. Sci. 96:846-853. doi:10.1093/jas/sky041/4869971.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 20108 Citation: C.F. Pierce, D.W. Bailey, J.F. Medrano, A. C�novas, S.E. Speidel, S.J. Coleman, R.M. Enns, and M.G. Thomas. 2018. Characteristics of grazing distribution traits in beef cattle for genotype-phenotypes associations. Proc. 11th World Congr. Genet. Appl. Livest. Prod. 11:246. February 15, 2018, Auckland, NZ.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Speidel, S. E., R. M. Enns, and B. L. Golden. 2018. Use of a random regression model for the evaluation of heifer pregnancy in Red Angus cattle. Proc. 11th World Congr. Genet. Appl. Livest. Prod. 11:581. http://www.wcgalp.org/proceedings/2018/use-random-regression-model-evaluation-heifer-pregnancy-red-angus-cattle
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: M.G. Thomas, J.M. Neary, G.M. Krafsur, T.N. Holt, R.M. Enns, S.E. Speidel, F.B. Garry, A. Canovas, J.F. Medrano, R.D. Brown, and K.R. Stenmark. 2018. Pulmonary hypertension in beef cattle: a complicated threat to health and productivity in multiple beef industry segments. White Paper for Certified Angus Beef. http://www.cabpartners.com/news/research.php. Accepted 5/9/2018.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: K.J. Jennings, G.M. Krafsur, R.D. Brown, T.N. Holt, S.J. Coleman, R.M. Enns, S.E. Speidel, K.R. Stenmark and M.G. Thomas. 2018. Pulmonary hypertension in Angus steers: influence of finishing systems and altitudes. J. Anim. Sci. 96(Suppl 3):87. doi.org/10.1093/jas/sky404.192.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Boldt, R.J., S.E. Speidel, M.G. Thomas, and R.M. Enns. 2018. Genetic parameters for fertility and production traits in Red Angus cattle. J. Anim. Sci. 96:4100-4111. doi:10.1093/jas/sky294.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Crawford, N. F., S. J. Coleman, T. N. Holt, S. E. Speidel, R. M. Enns, R. Hamid, and M. G. Thomas. 2018. Allele distribution and candidate polymorphism association of EPAS1variant with mean pulmonary arterial pressures in yearling Angus cattle. Agri Gene. 9:27-31. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aggene.2018.07.004.


Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences during this reporting period were the academic/research community, beef cattle industry professionals including managers of large animal feeding companies, veterinarians, and breeders. The scientific community was informed through 7 preesntations at annual meetings, the largest of which was attended by nearly 4000 professionals. A focused "think-tank" was also held to present ongoing research associated with late term feedlot death with key industry professionals invited that account for the feeding of over 500,000 animals annually. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training activities associated with this project as a whole include mentoring and participation of 10 graduate students in various facets of the project. Additionally, one post-doctoral associated has participated in the project. Other training activities are listed under major activities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Efforts during the next year will focus primarily on objectives 1 through 5. Objective 6 will likely be addressed in the final year of the project. We are begining new collaborations with both university and industry entities to adddress objectives 1 through 3. We will continue ongoing work for the other objectives including, but not limited to, GPS studies on grazing behavior, alternative measures of feed intake using low-cost technologies, and use of crossbred, field data for evaluation of heterosis effects on economically relevant traits.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Producing beef acceptable to the consumer in terms of quality, quantity and price remains the goal of beef producers. Simultaneously, at the ranch/farm level, producers must consider the economic and environmental sustainability of their own operations including best use of rangelands. Rangelands provide much of the forage for domestic ruminants in the western United States with some estimates suggesting this to be 50% to 65% of forage required (Holecheck, 2013). However the rugged terrain and at times scarcity of water, often result in areas remaining ungrazed or underutilized (e.g. Bailey et al., 2015; Roath and Krueger, 1982) with other areas receiving excess grazing pressure. Previous research has shown that genetics has a role in animal grazing behavior. Therefore, development of methods to select animals with a greater genetic predispotion to use rugged or water-scarce terrain could result in better utilization of forage resources and potentially reduce over use of some rangeland areas (e.g. riparian and meadow areas) in the Western U.S. Under objectives 4 and 5 of this project, global positioning system technologies are being used to study grazing patterns and quantify grazing distribution. Bailey et . (2015) tracked 148 cattle from 7 different ranches in New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, and Arizona with location coordinates recorded every 10 to 15 minutes from 1 to 3 months on each animal resulting in approximately 8,000 location records per animal. These coordinates were then used to determine distance from water, percent slope, and elevations associated with each animal's grazing pattern. These observations were then used to calculate a terrain use index for each individual. Blood samples were also collected from each animal with 80 subsequently genotyped for 770,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) using Illumina's BovineHD BeadChip to identify genomic regions associated with grazing behavior and terrain use. This analysis revealed 5 chomosomal loci associated with the terrain-use indices with 6 SNP in fivecandidate genes (GRM5, MAML3, RUSC2, SUPT20H,andSDHAF3) that were associated (P < 0.05) with terrain use indices cumulatively explaining 34 to 36% of the variation in these indices. In the past year, an additional 70 cows were added to this data set--a substantial improvement in the scientific resource. These results further support a genetic component to animal grazing behavior and terrain use. These genomic markers, combined with the GPS data, and results from other genomic studies, could lead to the development of selection tools for breeders; in turn, enabling them to produce animals that have a genetic predisposition for better utilization of rangeland areas, improving rangeland quality, and economic and environmental sustainability of rangeland beef production.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Krehbiel, B.C., M.G. Thomas, S.E. Speidel, R.M. Enns, and H.D. Blackburn. 2017. Genetic structure of Angus and Salers in relation to SNP associated with pulmonary arterial pressure. J. Anim. Sci. 95(E. Suppl. 4):87.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Pierce, C.F., M.M. Dias, D.W. Bailey, J.F. Medrano, A. Canovas, S.E. Speidel, S.J. Coleman, R.M. Enns, and M.G. Thomas. 2017. SNP discovery for QTL associated with grazing distribution in Angus cattle using RNA-seq. J. Anim. Sci. 95(E. Suppl. 4):85-86.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Bailey, D,W. M.G. Trotter, C.W. Knight, and M.G. Thomas. 2017. Use of GPS tracking collars and accelerometers for rangeland livestock production research. J. Anim. Sci. 95(E. Suppl. 4):360.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Crawford, N. F., R. M. Enns, S. E. Speidel, B. LaShell, T. N. Holt, M. G. Thomas. 2017. Case Study: Factors influencing pulmonary arterial pressure in cattle of the San Juan Basin Research Center 4-Corners Bull test data. PAS. 33:387-392. doi:10.15232/pas.2016-01587
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Speidel, S.E. and R.M. Enns. 2017. Evaluating Sustained Cow Production. Alternate Definitions for Stayability. Beef Improvement Federation Annual Convention. Athens, GA.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Jennings, K.J., X. Zeng, A. Reverter, T.N. Holt, S.J. Coleman, R.M. Enns, S.E. Speidel, and M.G. Thomas. 2017. Construction of an association weight matrix to identify SNP that play a role in performance of Angus cattle at higher elevations. J. Anim. Sci. 95(E. Suppl. 4):86-87.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Culbertson, M.M., M.G. Thomas, L.L. Leachman, R.M. Enns, and S.E. Speidel. 2017. Multivariate analysis of beef cattle pulmonary arterial pressures measured at differing elevations. J. Anim. Sci. 95(E. Suppl. 4):86.


Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences reached during this period were members of the research/education community through 11 presentations given at various scientific meetings, such as the annual meeting of the American Society of Animal Science. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have mentored one Post-Doc working on better understanding the biological underpinnings of high altitude disease and congestive heart failure. Additionally, 3 graduate students have been trained using data and projects associated with this project to develope their critical thinking and analytical skills. One undergraduate worked on this project as part of her honors thesis project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In the current reporting period results have been disseminated to the scientific and teaching communities through 11 presentations at scientific meetins. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the coming year, we plan the following: Continue to work with industry partners at the cow/calf, feedlot and association levels to use rapidly developing "omics" techniques to better understand the genetic mechanisms contributing to high altitude disease, late term feedlot death and congestive heart failure. Continue ongoing work with the optimization of beef production decision support tools and development to address economic influence of disease on profitability. Identify additional purebred and crossbred databases from industry that will enhance and enable the research associated with understanding biology of sparsely recorded traits in an effort to develop better genetic evaluation approaches for these traits. Identify additional purebred and crossbred databases from industry that will enhance and enable the research associated with understanding heterosis effects in new traits to develop better genetic evaluation approaches for these traits.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The calculation of Expected Progeny Differences (EPD) continues to evolve with new traits being developed and additional sources of information becoming available resulting in more accurate EPD at earlier ages in animals' lives. The increasing number of EPD as well as increasing costs associated with genomic prediction systems and some data collection systems (e.g. feed intake), present an often overwhelming amount of information for the beef cattle breeder. Tools that beef cattle breeders can use to integrate costs, incomes, and evolving genetic prediction methodologies for the various phases of the beef production system will result in more accurate selection and breeding decisions, improved profitability and production sustainability. We have made significant progress in research to better achieve these goals. The outcomes described subsequently for objectives 1, 4 and 5 are key to better use of currently available EPD and will improve adoption of EPD under development for new traits. 1. Develop and improve methods for integration of costs/incomes of production, genetic prediction technologies, and underlying biological systems (such as the interaction of nutrition, reproduction, and genetic makeup) into selection decisions accounting for current levels of animal performance and management. High altitude disease in cattle produced at elevations greater than 5,000 feet results in increased mortalities and economic loss to producers in these regions. Using an indicator trait, pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP), producers can identify animals at high risk for this disease. Research shows a large genetic influence on PAP and a corresponding ability to identify high PAP individuals, resulting in populations of animals more adapted to high elevation environments. Prototype PAP EPD have been developed using data from the CSU John E. Rouse Beef Improvement Center Angus herd. Using yearling bull prices from the annual on-ranch sale in years 2011 through 2014, the value of bulls with lower PAP and therefore lower risk of high altitude disease was estimated. In this study producers paid an average of $145.63 for each mm Hg lower PAP score. 2. Identify producer-specific economic data critical to proper model parameterization and prediction of profitability differences. Nothing to report 3. Develop methodology to account for value of production and genetic improvement given the time-lag for realization of those improvements and alternatives endpoints for marketing animals. Our efforts have focused on developing a mathematical dynamic optimization model to evaluate the management decisions for commercial beef breeding herds. We are currently in the process of reformulating a model that M. Frasier (a co-PD) used in support of research published in the 90s to evaluate optimal replacement and management strategies. The model work focused on porting the model where MPS code was generated on DOS-based QuattroPro and uploaded for solution on a mainframe computer. Once ported, this model will solve on a desktop PC and will be then be modified to incorporate sire selection decisions. 4. Improve understanding of underlying biological systems including genomic and quantitative basis of heterotic effects with the genomic basis driven by information gleaned from of all the "omics" disciplines (i.e., genome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, phenome). Efforts to improve understanding of heterotic effects has progressed with focus on pulmonary arterial pressure (as related to high altitude disease). Research using an industry performance database, allowed estimation of heterotic effects for PAP--the first such estimate likely ever reported. Our research showed that PAP decreased (favorable) 0.02 mm Hg for every percent increase in outcross (P < 0.155) indicating a favorable response in mating systems using crossbreeding systems and the potential to leverage crossbreeding programs to produce more adapted beef cattle with higher levels of survival and less sickness. 5. Develop methods for genetic evaluation of performance traits with sparse phenotypic data (e.g. feed intake, health, and grazing distribution) due to expense of or difficulty in measurement but with more plentiful genomic information. Heart failure and pulmonary hypertension are problems becoming increasingly reported in fattening beef cattle outside of the high elevations normally associated with pulmonary hypertension in beef cattle. The expansion of this condition to lower elevations has increased the need for research into the relationship amongst occurrence at high and low elevations. Steers from the CSU Beef Improvement Center were measured for pulmonary arterial pressure at high elevation (> 7000 feet), and then were transported to a lower elevation feedlot (~4,660 feet) where PAP was again measured. PAP was lower immediately after the transition to the feedlot. However, subsequent PAP measures taken approximately 3 weeks before harvest showed that previously hypertensive animals at elevation were again increasing PAP in response to intense feeding and fattening. Given the relationship, the potential to leverage data from both sources, could increase the accuracy of selection against this problem and therefore reduce incidence, improving animal welfare. 6. Validation/parameterization of deliverable products Nothing to report

Publications


    Progress 07/01/15 to 09/30/15

    Outputs
    Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Two graduate students have worked with the historic database and continue to add accumulated data to this resource. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continue data analyses and publication of genetic relationships of growth and fertility with adaptability traits of Angus cattle in high altitude beef production systems. This will be accomplished through M.S. and PhD dissertation projects of N.F. Crawford, X. Zeng, and G.M. Krafsur. We will continue to coordinate with the agriculture economics team to facilitate model parameterization factors of key importance in the melding of economic and genetic data to improve beef system profitability.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? We continue to collect animal performance information from the CSU Beef Improvement Center cow herd. During this period, additional genomic information was processed as well as animal fertility and individual feed intake measures. We also continued monthly meetings with the agricultural economics scientist on the project in order to develop key economic performance measures that will enable incorporation of economic data into genetic improvement decision tools.

    Publications