Inheritance of Twinning in a Herd of Holstein-Friesian Cattle

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Abstract
In a large herd of Holstein-Friesian cattle it was found that the sire and dam contribute to twinning tendency among the daughters. The data covered a 30-yr. period and involved 266 twinning cows (14%) out of 1,905 that calved one or more times. There were 313 multiple births among 7387 calvings (4.2%). After adjustments for age, daughters of twinning cows twinned significantly more frequently than daughters from non-twinning cows. Parents which were themselves twins apparently transmitted twinning tendency no more frequently than if they had been singly born from the same ancestors. Twinning rates among paternal sisters from non-twinning dams were used to divide 23 sires into a low and a high group. Twinning rate among daughters (cow-basis) of the low-level sires from twinning dams was 11.7 [plus or minus] 2.6%. Similarly for the high-level sires, the rate was 23.3 [plus or minus] 3.7%. The difference between the 2 groups was significant (P<0.05). Cows conceived within 75 days after cystic ovaries twinned at 15.1% of the subsequent calvings, as compared with 4.9% if conceived after 75 days (P<0.05). Cows having twins only subsequent to cystic ovaries transmitted the tendency to their daughters at the same rate as cows twinning when not cystic. The total evidence indicates that twinning under most herd conditions is comparatively unimportant as an undesirable characteristic.