Correlations Between Udder Conformation Traits and Somatic Cell Count in Canadian Holstein Cows

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Abstract
Heritabilities of, and genetic and phenotypic correlations between, type traits and the arithmetic mean of lactational SCC were estimated using minimum norm quadratic unbiased estimation and two multitrait REML methods. Three sets of data were analyzed. Heritabilities of all traits were small. For SCC, heritabilities varied between .09 and .11 and for type traits, between .08 and .14. Genetic correlations between SCC and type traits varied between -.22 and .30. Phenotypic correlations were very low. In general, correlations indicate a rather favorable association between SCC and udder conformation traits; that is, a desirable score on type would be associated with low SCC in milk.