Short communication: Association of disease incidence and adaptive immune response in Holstein dairy cows

The objective of this study was to use previously calculated estimated breeding values for cell- (CMIR) and antibody-mediated immune responses (AMIR) to determine associations between immune response (IR) and economically important diseases of dairy cattle. In total, 699 Holsteins were classified as high, average, or low for CMIR, AMIR, and overall IR (combined CMIR and AMIR), and associations with mastitis, metritis, ketosis, displaced abomasums, and retained fetal membranes were determined. The incidence of mastitis was higher among average cows as compared with cows classified as high AMIR [odds ratio (OR) = 2.5], high CMIR (OR = 1.8), or high IR (OR = 1.8). Low-CMIR cows had a higher incidence of metritis (OR = 11.3) and low-IR cows had a higher incidence of displaced abomasum (OR = 4.1) and retained fetal membrane (OR = 2.8) than did average responders. Results of this study show that cows classified as high immune responders have lower occurrence of disease, suggesting that breeding cattle for enhanced IR may be a feasible approach to decrease the incidence of infectious and metabolic diseases in the dairy industry.