Polymorphisms in genes regulating aspects of innate immunity are associated with life expectancy in a population of UK Holstein dairy cows

摘要

Mastitis, infertility and lameness are the three major reasons for involuntary culling of dairy cows. These conditions all reduce life expectancy in the herd, which is in turn a major determinant of profitability (Kossaibati and Esslemont, 2000). We initially undertook a review of the literature and databases to identify key genes involved in the regulation of innate immune responses which are associated with the risk of a cow having a raised somatic cell count (SCC) or developing clinical mastitis (Chen et al. 2015). This highlighted a number of genes relating to granulocyte adhesion and diapedesis signaling and the ephrin receptor signaling pathway. These genes are important regulators of the early innate immune response by controlling granulocyterecruitment and migration to infected tissues and subsequently an inflammatory response. The candidate gene list included SELE, SELP, SELL (all adhesion molecules involved in granulocyte diapedesis), TREM' (encoding an Ig superfamily receptor expressedon myeloid cells such as granolucytes and important for amplifying inflammatory responses) and RelA (a member of the NF-kappaB family of transcription factors which co-ordinate regulation of host defense). The SNP rs41579632 was also studied as it had previously been associated with clinical mastitis in Norwegian Red cattle (Sodeland et al., 2011).