PMID- 22444118
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
DCOM- 20121002
LR  - 20120326
IS  - 1751-732X (Electronic)
IS  - 1751-7311 (Linking)
VI  - 4
IP  - 5
DP  - 2010 May
TI  - Analysis of body measurements of newborn purebred Belgian Blue calves.
PG  - 661-71
LID - 10.1017/S1751731109991558 [doi]
AB  - At calving, purebred animals of the Belgian Blue (BB) breed are compromised by 
      the incompatibility in size and shape of the dam and her calf, resulting in a 
      very high incidence of dystocia problems. To clarify which body parts of the calf 
      are of decisive importance to allow natural delivery and to investigate both the 
      mean value as well as the variation among these body sizes within this breed 
      (variation being an important condition for selection), measurements of nine body 
      parts (body weight at birth (BW), body length (BL), length of the head (LH), 
      shoulder width (SW), hip width (HW), heart girth (HG), withers height (WH) and 
      the circumference of the fetlock of both the front (CFF) and the hind leg (CFH)) 
      were assessed in 147 newborn purebred BB calves on 17 farms. Simple and partial 
      correlations were assessed and we examined whether environmental factors (gender 
      of the calf, parity of the cow, type of calving, season of birth and time of 
      measurement after birth) were significantly associated with these specific calf 
      measurements. The mean BW was 49.2 +/- 7.1 kg. The average BL was 56.4 +/- 4.5 cm and 
      the mean LH was 24.4 +/- 2.3 cm. Measurements obtained for SW and HW were 22.4 +/- 
      2.2 and 22.9 +/- 2.1 cm, respectively, whereas the mean WH was 71.1 +/- 4.7 cm. 
      Measurements of circumferences revealed a CFF of 17.9 +/- 1.1 cm, a CFH of 18.0 +/- 
      1.0 cm and a mean HG of 78.0 +/- 5.4 cm. Partial correlations of the BW with eight 
      body measurements were significant (P < 0.01) and ranged between 0.17 and 0.85; 
      0.42 and 0.88; and 0.24 and 0.88 when corrected for gender, parity and type of 
      calving, respectively. BL (P < 0.01) and the CFF and CFH (P < 0.001) are larger 
      in bull calves than in heifer calves. Calves born through caesarean section had 
      broader SW (P < 0.01) and HW (P < 0.01) when compared with calves born after 
      natural calving (defined as born per vaginam without assistance or with slight 
      traction). Sizes of calves born out of multiparous cows were generally larger 
      than of calves born out of heifers (SW: P < 0.001; HW: P < 0.05). As SW and HW 
      are the broadest points of a BB calf, they are both candidates for being the 
      limiting measures for calving ease, but the difference between HW and SW for the 
      total data set was not different from zero (P > 0.05). In contrast to male calves 
      in which no significant difference (between HW and SW) could be found, female 
      calves show the difference between HW and SW that was significantly different 
      from zero (P < 0.001); thus, in female calves, the HW is the most limiting factor 
      of the calf's body. The significant variation in some body measures between the 
      calves and the strong correlation within these sizes raises the possibility of 
      selection towards smaller calves aiming to limit the dystocia problem in the BB 
      breed. Furthermore, on the basis of our results, we were able to build equations 
      for the farmer to use at the moment of calving containing the LH, the CF and the 
      calf's gender to estimate SW and HW, the limiting body parts of the calf to be 
      born naturally. Together with the knowledge of the pelvic size of the dam, this 
      information gives the obstetrician or the farmer a more accurate prediction of 
      the probability of natural calving at parturition.
FAU - Kolkman, I
AU  - Kolkman I
AD  - 1Department of Agro- and Biotechnology, KaHo Sint-Lieven, Hospitaalstraat 23, 
      B-9100 Sint Niklaas, Belgium.
FAU - Opsomer, G
AU  - Opsomer G
FAU - Aerts, S
AU  - Aerts S
FAU - Hoflack, G
AU  - Hoflack G
FAU - Laevens, H
AU  - Laevens H
FAU - Lips, D
AU  - Lips D
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - England
TA  - Animal
JT  - Animal : an international journal of animal bioscience
JID - 101303270
EDAT- 2010/05/01 00:00
MHDA- 2010/05/01 00:01
CRDT- 2012/03/27 06:00
PHST- 2012/03/27 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2010/05/01 00:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2010/05/01 00:01 [medline]
AID - S1751731109991558 [pii]
AID - 10.1017/S1751731109991558 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Animal. 2010 May;4(5):661-71. doi: 10.1017/S1751731109991558.