Retained placenta in MRIJ cattle is affected by
heritable and non-heritable factors
L. Benedictus1, A.P. Koets1, P. van Eldik1 and H.C.M. Heuven1,2
Introduction

Retained Placenta(RP) is defined as failure of
timely expulsion of fetal membranes.
RP can be linked to failure of immune-mediated
rejection of fetal membranes by the dam and
depends on Major Histocompatibility Complex
class I (MHC class I) incompatibility.
MHC compatibility is genetically determined but
not heritable.


Objective
Estimation of heritable and non-heritable
genetic effects on retained placenta in
MRIJ-cattle

Materials & Methods







43661 calvings observed (Joosten et al. 1987)
Controls: Expulsion of placenta < 6 hrs
Cases: Retention of placenta > 24 hrs
22 sires and 6 grandsires; i.e. 132 halfsib groups
Pedigree up to 18 generations
Last 3 generations 95% complete
Coefficient of relationship between sire and
maternal grandsire used as estimate for the
coefficient of relationship between dam and calf.
Variance components estimated using a sirematernal grandsire model

Conclusions
Results

Retained Placenta showed considerable
genetic variation and the heritability was
0.22 (± 0.07).
Higher compatibility between dam and
calf, measured as coefficient of
relationship between sire and maternal
grandsire, showed an increase in
Retained Placenta.
Discussion
+
CR dam-calf
Compatible
-
Incompatible
Retained placenta (%)
5
4
3
2
1
0
<0.05
0.05 - <0.10
0.10 - <0.15
≥?0.15
Coefficient of relationship class
Figure 1 The estimated incidence of retained
placenta increases for classes with higher coefficient
of relationship between sire and maternal grandsire,
except for the class ≥0.15, which contained 13
halfsib groups with 5,363 calvings in total.
l.benedictus1@uu.nl
1
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht, Netherlands
+
RP
-
Figure 2 Biological explanation for the relation
between coefficient of relationship (CR) between dam
and calf and RP. A higher CR between dam and calf
increases the chance of MHC class I compatibility
between dam and calf, which in turn increases the risk
for RP.
henri.heuven@wur.nl;h.c.m.heuven@uu.nl
1
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht, Netherlands
2
ABGC, Wageningen-UR, Wageningen, Netherlands