Associations between blood groups, blood protein polymorphisms and breeding values for production traits in Swedish Red and White Dairy bulls

The relationships of nine blood group systems and two blood protein polymorphisms with breeding values for several production traits were examined in dairy cattle of the Swedish Red and White (SRB) breed. The material consisted of 2212 bulls; the bulls were performance tested for growth rate and their breeding values for milk yield, fat and protein content in milk were estimated from progeny tests. The direct effect of marker alleles or marker phenotypes was analysed in a multiple regression model. Several significant associations were found; many supported earlier findings. However, the contribution of the markers to the total variation of the breeding values was very small. Linkage between marker loci and production loci was studied in offspring from heterozygous sires by estimating the interactions between sire and marker alle using a model eliminating the direct effects of sire and marker alle. There were strong indications of linkage between some marker loci (e.g. B, J and Am-1 loci) and loci with large effects on production traits.