Kristen Parker Gaddis, Ph.D.
Geneticist
Kristen has served as Geneticist at CDCB since October 2016. She studied at North Carolina State University, where she received her Bachelor’s and Doctorate degree in animal science and quantitative genetics. Her Ph.D. research focused on utilization of producer-recorded cow health information to improve understanding of the genetics behind disease resistance, analysis of the health data, and estimation of traditional and genomic breeding values of dairy animals for common health traits. Kristen conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Florida and USDA AGIL involving fertility and reproductive technology traits, along with continued work on development of health trait evaluations.
Projects & Publications
Selecting for Greater Parlor Efficiency is Possible
Dairy farmers now have a more powerful, long-term tool to affect the milking time of their herds with a new trait developed by the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB): milking speed, which became available for Holsteins in the August triannual genetic evaluations.
Novel Milking Speed Trait is Highly Heritable
Soon, a new tool will be available to help make the milking process even more efficient and uniform: genetic selection for milking speed in Holsteins.
Health Traits Updated, Reflecting Data Surge
The most significant change for the April 2024 triannual evaluations is an adjustment in the trait model for six CDCB health evaluations – resistance to milk fever, displaced abomasum, ketosis, mastitis, metritis, and retained placenta.
AIP Research Report NM$8: Net merit as a measure of lifetime profit: 2021 revision
An alternative interpretation of residual feed intake by phenotypic recursive relationships in dairy cattle
Journal of Dairy Science, 2021
Symposium review: Development, implementation, and future perspectives of health evaluations in the U.S.
Journal of Dairy Science. 2020
Enhancements to U.S. genetic and genomic evaluations in 2018 and 2019
Interbull Bulletin, 2019
Improving resistance of cattle to BRD through genomics
Animal Health Research Reviews, 2021
GWAS and fine-mapping of livability and six disease traits in Holstein cattle
BMC Genomics, 2019
Extending genomic evaluations to direct health traits in Jerseys
Journal of Dairy Science, 2019
Genome-wide association study for ketosis in U.S. Jerseys using producer-recorded data
Journal of Dairy Science, 2018
Identification of genomic regions associated with resistance to clinical mastitis in U.S. Holstein cattle
Journal of Dairy Science, 2018
Genome-wide association study and gene network analysis of fertility, retained placenta, and metritis in U.S. Holstein cattle
Proceedings of the World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, 2018
Development of national genomic evaluations for health traits in U.S. Holsteins
Proceedings of the World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, 2018
Evaluation of genetic components in traits related to superovulation, in vitro fertilization, and embryo transfer in Holstein cattle
Journal of Dairy Science, 2017
Development of genomic evaluations for direct measures of health in U.S. Holsteins and their correlations with fitness traits
Journal of Dairy Science, 2017
Genomic analysis of ketosis susceptibility in Jersey Cattle
Journal of Dairy Science, 2017
Genotype by environment (climate) interaction improves genomic prediction for production traits in U.S. Holstein cattle
Journal of Dairy Science, 2017
Improving health, fertility, and longevity through genetic selection
In Large Dairy Herd Management, 3rd edition, 2017
Genetic analysis of superovulation and embryo transfer traits in Holstein cattle
Journal of Animal Science, 2016
Genomic analysis of lactation persistency in four breeds of dairy cattle
Journal of Animal Science, 2016
Invited Review: Opportunities for genetic improvement of metabolic diseases
Journal of Dairy Science, 2016
Explorations in genome-wide association studies and network analyses with dairy cattle fertility traits
Journal of Dairy Science, 2016
Benchmarking cow health status with dairy herd summary data
21st Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics, 2015
Benchmarking dairy herd health status using routinely recorded herd summary data
Journal of Dairy Science, 2015
Accounting for genotype by environment interaction in genomic predictions for U.S. Holstein dairy cattle
Interbull Bulletin 49, 2015
Genomic prediction of disease occurrence using producer-recorded health data: A comparison of methods
Genetics Selection Evolution, 2015
A genome-wide association study for clinical mastitis in first parity U.S. Holstein cows using single-step approach and genomic matrix re-weighting procedure
PLoS ONE, 2015
Using routinely recorded herd data to predict and benchmark herd and cow health status
Journal of Dairy Science, 2015
Genome-wide association study of fertility traits in dairy cattle using high-density single nucleotide polymorphism marker panels
Journal of Dairy Science, 2015