With the growing trend of heavier cattle and carcass weights, packers are seeing higher rates of bovine congestive heart failure (BCHF). Justin Buchanan, PhD, of Simplot Land and Livestock, in Grandview, Idaho, addressed the issue during the 2024 Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Symposium.
“This is a real problem in the industry, which is why we are investing so much into developing selection tools we can use to address the problem,” said Buchanan, who spoke about the associations among BCHF, organ phenotypes, data collected at the plant and treatment records for BRD.
Creating traceable phenotypes for heart failure
Simplot’s packing facility, CS Beef Packers, has collected more than 100,000 heart scores since 2020, with 50% showing morphological changes that indicate a progression of BCHF. 4% of the animals with heart scores were classified as score 4 or 5, indicating late-stage heart failure. These scores form the basis of their BCHF EPD.
Findings showed that while BCHF occurs in all breeds, beef breeds had higher concentrations of animals with high heart scores, specifically high percentage Angus, than beef-on-dairy. Notably, a GWAS performed by Gencove did not find the same associations of BCHF with the ARRDC3 or NIFA variants found in other studies. Heritability of heart score was between 0.3 and 0.4, leading Buchanan to believe BCHF is a polygenic trait that selective breeding decisions can influence.
Other findings were that hot carcass weight was the most associated trait with BCHF at 0.4.
“When we use our selection indexes to drive carcass weight and growth, we are pulling those congestive heart failure cases right along with that selection,” Buchanan said. “So, if we don’t create a tool to select against this, it’s just going to get worse over time.”
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