Estimates of Genetic Parameters for Milk, the Occurrence of and Susceptibility to Clinical Lameness and Claw Disorders in Dairy Goats

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Lameness and claw disorders are important animal welfare issues in dairy goats, and knowledge is limited. Estimates of genetic parameters for occurrence and susceptibility to clinical lameness and claw disorders and the genetic associations with milk production traits in dairy goats were obtained in this study. These results indicate that a selection index can be developed to select animals resistant or tolerant to lameness and claw disorders. ABSTRACT: The New Zealand goat industry accesses niche markets for high-value products, mainly formula for infants and young children. This study aimed to estimate the genetic parameters of occurrence and susceptibility of clinical lameness and selected claw disorders and establish their genetic associations with milk production traits. Information on pedigree, lameness, claw disorders, and milk production was collected on three farms between June 2019 and July 2020. The dataset contained 1637 does from 174 sires and 1231 dams. Estimates of genetic and residual (co)variances, heritabilities, and genetic and phenotypic correlations were obtained with uni- and bi-variate animal models. The models included the fixed effects of farm and parity, deviation from the median kidding date as a covariate, and the random effects of animal and residual error. The heritability (h(2)) estimates for lameness occurrence and susceptibility were 0.07 and 0.13, respectively. The h(2) estimates for claw disorder susceptibilities ranged from 0.02 to 0.23. The genotypic correlations ranged from weak to very strong between lameness and milk production traits (−0.94 to 0.84) and weak to moderate (0.23 to 0.84) between claw disorder and milk production traits.