Health traits in stationary progeny tested German Fleckvieh bulls 1st communication: Analysis of systematic effects

The objective of this study was to analyse systematic effects on the incidence and number of treatments due to bronchopneumonia and other diseases in German Fleckvieh bulls. The data set included 1775 male calves which were progeny tested between 1994 and 2001. From the age of 30 until 450 days all veterinary treatments and diagnoses were recorded. The incidence of bronchopneumonia was 76.4%. Other diseases were found in 16.7% of the calves. The mortality rate was 4.05% and of those cases 31.9% were caused by bronchopneumonia. Using a generalized linear model, the following systematic effects on the incidence and number of treatments of bronchopneumonia and other diseases were analysed: age at entry at the test station, entry barn, region of origin, entry season, year of progeny testing, diagnosis of bronchopneumonia at entry, test group and weight at entry. Age and year of entry and group within year were significant. The incidence of bronchopneumonia was also significantly influenced by the season of entry. For the age at entry the LS-means of the incidence of bronchopneumonia were 80.6 to 88.9% and of the number of treatments of bronchopneumonia 2.22 to 2.96. The LS-means for the season of entry of the incidence of bronchopneumonia were between 78.1 and 91.1%, respectively, 1.72 and 3.67 for the number of treatments due to bronchopneumonia. Calves which were settled from June to September had the lowest incidence of bronchopneumonia with a value of 75.7% and the lowest number of treatments due to bronchopneumonia with a value of 2.13. The LS-means for the year of entry of the incidence of other diseases were between 4.6 and 56.9%, respectively, between 0.17 and 1.11 for the number of treatments due to other diseases. The LS-means for the age at entry of the incidence of other diseases were between 8.6 and 16.9%, respectively, between 0.29 and 0.46 for the number of treatments due to other diseases. The LS-means of the group within year for the incidence of other diseases ranged from 1.0 to 63.7%, respectively, from 0.002 to 1.57 for the number of treatments due to other diseases.

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