GENETICANDENVIRONMENTALFACTORS AFFECTINGSERUMMACROMINERALSAND PREWEANINGGROWTHINANGUS, BRAHMAN ANDTHEIRCROSSES BY WILLIAMOUKOODENYA ADISSERTATION PRESENTEDTOTHE GRADUATESCHOOLOFTHEUNIVERSITYOFFLORIDA INPARTIALFULFILLMENTOFTHEREQUIREMENTS FORTHEDEGREEOFDOCTOROFPHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITYOFFLORIDA 1992 UNIVERSITYOFFLORIDALIBRARIES Dedicatedto MylateparentsAbsalomOdenyaOlooandDuclllaMbaylOdenya whoinstilledwithinmethevaluestosucceedinanyendeavor My wife Jemimah who patiently and lovingly provided support necessaryforcompletionofthiseffort My children Daniel, Patricia and Erick who encouraged and challengedmetofinishmydegreeprogram ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am extremely grateful to Dr. Mauricio A. EIzo, chairman of my supervisorycommittee,forguidance,encouragementandsupervisionprovided during my graduate study. My sincere gratitude is also extended to Drs. TimothyA.Olson,LeeR. McDowell,DonD.Hargrove,CharlesJ.Wilcoxand PeterE.Hildebrandfortheiradviceandhelpfulcriticismandfortheirserviceon thesupervisorycommittee. Special thanks are extended to Mr. Carlos Manrique, a friend and graduatestudent,forhisassistancewithdatacollection,Ms.NancyWilkinson forheradviceinlaboratoryproceduresinmineralanalysisandtoMs. Shirley A. Rhodenforassistancewithwordprocessingprocedures. Sincere thanks are also expressed to my friends Henry King, Peter Wanyande, Stephen 0. Mbuya, Dr. Richard Ogwada and to my friends at CreeksideCommunityChurchfortheirthoughtsandsocializing. IexpressmyappreciationtoEgertonUniversity,Kenyaforprocuringme afellowshiptotrainfordoctoraldegreeattheUniversityofFlorida,Gainesville. Nowordscanexpressmyappreciationfortheencouragementgivenby mywife, Jemimahandmychildren:Daniel,PatriciaandErick. iii TABLEOFCONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LISTOFTABLES vii ABSTRACT ix CHAPTERS ONE INTRODUCTION 1 TWO LITERATUREREVIEW 6 SourcesofVariationofMacromineralConcentrations 6 Environmentalfactors 6 Geneticfactors 9 InheritanceofMinerals 11 RelationshipBetweenMineralConcentrationsandGrowth ... 12 Calcium 12 Introduction 12 PhysiologicalFunctions 13 Proteinsynthesisandgrowth 13 OtherFunctions 16 Homeostasis 16 Absorption 21 Requirements 23 Phosphorus 24 Introduction 24 PhysiologicalFunctions 24 Proteinsynthesisandgrowth 24 OtherFunctions 26 Homeostasis 28 Absorption 29 Requirements 31 iv Magnesium 31 Introduction 31 PhysiologicalFunctions 32 Proteinsynthesisandgrowth 32 OtherFunctions 34 Homeostasis 35 Absorption 37 Requirements 38 Potassium 39 Introduction 39 PhysiologicalFunctions 39 Proteinsynthesisandgrowth 39 OtherFunctions 40 Homeostasis 42 Absorption 43 Requirements 43 Sodium 44 Introduction 44 PhysiologicalFunctions 44 Proteinsynthesisandgrowth 44 OtherFunctions 45 Homeostasis 45 Absorption 46 Requirements 47 THREE ADDITIVEANDNONADDITIVEGENETIC EFFECTSOFSERUMCALCIUM, PHOSHORUS, ANDMAGNESIUMANDWEIGHTATWEANING INANANGUS, BRAHMANMULTIBREEDHERD 48 Introduction 48 MaterialsandMethods 50 ResultsandDiscussion 57 FOUR HERITABILITIESOFANDGENETIC, ENVIRONMENTAL ANDPHENOTYPICCORRELATIONSAMONGSERUM CALCIUM, PHOSPHORUSANDWEIGHTATWEANING INANANGUS, BRAHMANMULTIBREEDHERD 67 Introduction 67 MaterialsandMethods 68 ResultsandDiscussion 74 V FIVE ADDITIVEANDNONADDITIVEGENETICEFFECTSOF SERUMPOTASSIUMANDSODIUMANDWEIGHT ATWEANINGINANANGUS, BRAHMAN MULTIBREEDHERD 79 Introduction 79 MaterialsandMethods 81 ResultsandDiscussion 89 SIX HERITABILITIESOFANDGENETIC, ENVIRONMENTAL ANDPHENOTYPICCORRELATIONSAMONGSERUM POTASSIUMANDSODIUMANDWEIGHTATWEANING INANANGUS, BRAHMANMULTIBREEDHERD 100 Introduction 100 MaterialsandMethods 102 ResultsandDiscussion 107 SEVEN SUMMARYANDCONCLUSIONS 116 APPENDIX 130 LITERATURECITED 132 BIOGRAPHICALSKETCH 149 vi LISTOFTABLES TABLE PAGE 1 NUMBEROFSIRESANDDAMSBYBREEDGROUP COMPOSITION 53 2 NUMBEROFPROGENYBYMATINGTYPE 54 3 F-VALUESANDPROBABILITYLEVELSOFENVIRONMENTAL ANDGENETICEFFECTSFORSERUMCALCIUM, PHOSPHORUS, ANDMAGNESIUMANDWEIGHTATWEANING 60 4 BESTLINEARUNBIASEDESTIMATESOFADDITIVEAND NONADDITIVEGENETICEFFECTSFORSERUMCALCIUM, PHOSPHORUS,ANDMAGNESIUMANDWEIGHTATWEANING ... 61 5 COMBININGABILITYOFSIREBREEDGROUPSMATEDACROSS DAMBREEDGROUPSFORSERUMCALCIUM,PHOSPHORUS, ANDMAGNESIUMANDWEIGHTATWEANING 66 6 NUMBEROFPROGENYPERSIRE 72 7 RESTRICTED MAXIMUMLIKELIHOODESTIMATESOF VARIANCECOMPONENTSFORSERUMCALCIUM, PHOSPHORUS,ANDMAGNESIUMANDWEIGHTATWEANING ... 75 8 ESTIMATESOFHERITABILITIES(± SE)ANDGENETIC (± SE),ENVIRONMENTALANDPHENOTYPIC CORRELATIONSAMONGSERUMCALCIUM, PHOSPHORUS, ANDWEIGHTATWEANING 77 9 NUMBEROFSIRESUSEDEACHYEARBYBREEDGROUP 83 10 NUMBEROFDAMSUSEDEACHYEARBYBREEDGROUP 84 11 NUMBEROFCALVESPRODUCEDBYBREEDGROUPOFSIRE BYBREEDGROUPOFDAMSUBCLASS 85 vii 12 F-VALUESANDPROBABILITYLEVELSOFENVIRONMENTAL ANDGENETICEFFECTSFORSERUMPOTASSIUMANDSODIUM ANDWEIGHTATWEANING 91 13 BESTLINEARUNBIASEDESTIMATESOFADDITIVEPOTASSIUM, SODIUMANDWEIGHTATWEANING 94 14 COMBININGABILITYOFSIREBREEDGROUPSMATEDACROSS DAMBREEDGROUPSFORSERUMPOTASSIUM, ANDSODIUM ANDWEIGHTATWEANING 98 15 DISTRIBUTIONOFSIRESANDCALVESBYBREED GROUPOFSIRE 104 16 RESTRICTED MAXIMUMLIKELIHOODESTIMATESOF VARIANCECOMPONENTSFORSERUMPOTASSIUM ANDWEIGHTATWEANING 108 17 ESTIMATESOFHERITABILITIES (± SE)ANDGENETIC {± SE),ENVIRONMENTALANDPHENOTYPICCORRELATIONS AMONGSERUMPOTASSIUMANDSODIUMANDWEIGHTAT WEANING 110 viii AbstractofDissertationPresentedtotheGraduateSchool oftheUniversityofFloridainPartialFulfillnnentofthe RequirementsfortheDegreeofDoctorofPhilosophy GENETICANDENVIRONMENTALFACTORSAFFECTING SERUMMACROMINERALSANDPREWEANINGGROWTH INANGUS, BRAHMANANDTHEIRCROSSES By WILLIAMOUKOODENYA May, 1992 Chairman: MauricioA. EIzo MajorDepartment: AnimalScience Geneticandenvironmentalfactorsaffectingserummacromineralsand preweaning growth in beef cattle were investigated. Amounts of serum calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassiumand sodiumatweaning (WCa, WP, WMg, WK, WNa) and weaning weight (WW) were obtained from 380 Angus(A),Brahman(B)andAxBcalves. CalveswereproducedbymatingA, .75A.25B, .5A.5B, .25A,75B and Brangussirestodamsofthe same breed groupsexcept .25A.75B. The geneticeffects modelcontainedyear, winter management,cleanupherd,ageofcalfatfirstsampling,sex,ageofdamand sex X age of dam interaction as fixed environmental effects. The genetic effectsweretheregressionsonAsireadditive,AxBdirectnonadditiveandA xBdamnonadditive. Thevariancecomponentsmodelcontainedalltheabove ix environmental effects plus the breed group of sire x breed group of dam interactionandthebreedgroupofmaternalgrandsirexbreedgroupofmaternal granddaminteractionasfixedgeneticeffects, andsirewithinbreedgroupof sireas a random geneticeffect. Yearand sex were importantforall traits (P<.01). AgeofdamwasimportantforWPandWMg(P<.01),WNaandWW (P<.04). SexXageofdaminteractionwasimportantforWW(P<.04). Best Linear Unbiased Estimates of genetic effects that were significant (P<.01) were1)-4.70mgWCa,-3.00mgWP,-.87mgWMg,-11.58mgWK,-108.35 mgWNaand-.38kgWWforAsireadditive, 2)-11.82 mgWPand .83 mg WMgforAdamadditive,3)213.51 mgWCa,81.19mgWP,48.26mgWMg, 304.58 mgWK, 5931.66 mgWNaand 19.91 kgWWfornonadditivedirect and 4) 366.56 mg WCa, 95.50 mg WP, 70.20 mg WMg, 550.72 mgWK, 9422.95 mg WNa and 36.31 kg WW for nonadditive maternal. The best combiningability was obtained by mating Bsiresto dams. Heritabilities were.39 (WCa), .40(WP), .36 (WMg), .09 (WK), .46(WNa)and .35 (WW). Genetic,environmentalandphenotypiccorrelationswere.66, .55,.57(WCa, WP), .70, .71, .70 (WCa,WMg), 1.00, .86, .88 (WCa,WW), .86, .73, .75 (WMg,WW), 1.03, .65, .67 (WK, WNa), .94, .59, .62 (WK, WW) and .94, .84, .87 (WNa, WW). SerumWCa, WP, WMgandWNacould be useful in multipletraitgeneticevaluationprocedurestohelpidentifyanimalsthatrequire low amounts of Ca, P, Mg and Na for preweaning growth. This may be advantageousinareaswiththesemineraldeficiencies. X