Genetic and phenotypic parameters for Aleutian disease tests and their correlations with pelt quality, reproductive performance, packed-cell volume, and harvest length in mink

Aleutian disease (AD), caused by the Aleutian mink disease virus (AMDV), is a major health concern that results in global economic losses to the mink industry. The unsatisfactory outcome of the culling strategy, immunoprophylaxis, and medical treatment in controlling AD have urged mink farmers to select AD resilient mink based on several detection tests, including enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), counterimmunoelectrophoresis (CIEP), and iodine agglutination test (IAT). However, the genetic analysis of these AD tests and their correlations with pelt quality, reproductive performance, packed-cell volume (PCV), and harvest length (HL) have not been investigated. In this study, data on 5,824 mink were used to estimate the genetic and phenotypic parameters of four AD tests, including two systems of ELISA, CIEP, and IAT, and their genetic and phenotypic correlations with two pelt quality, five female reproductive performance, PCV, and HL traits. Significances (P < 0.05) of fixed effects (sex, year, dam age, and color type), covariates (age at harvest and blood sampling), and random effects (additive genetic, permanent environmental, and maternal effects) were determined under univariate models using ASReml 4.1 software. The genetic and phenotypic parameters for all traits were estimated under bivariate models using ASReml 4.1 software. Estimated heritabilities (±SE) were 0.39 ± 0.06, 0.61 ± 0.07, 0.11 ± 0.07, and 0.26 ± 0.05 for AMDV antigen-based ELISA (ELISA-G), AMDV capsid protein-based ELISA, CIEP, and IAT, respectively. The ELISA-G also showed a moderate repeatability (0.58 ± 0.04) and had significant negative genetic correlations (±SE) with reproductive performance traits (from −0.41 ± 0.16 to −0.49 ± 0.12), PCV (−0.53 ± 0.09), and HL (−0.45 ± 0.16). These results indicated that ELISA-G had the potential to be applied as an indicator trait for genetic selection of AD resilient mink in AD endemic ranches and therefore help mink farmers to reduce the adverse effects caused by AD.