Interbull Routine Genetic Evaluation for Female Fertility Traits
December 2011
Introduction
The latest test international evaluation for females fertility traits took place
as scheduled at the Interbull Centre. Data from seventeen (18) countries were included in this evaluation.
International genetic evaluations for female fertility traits of bulls from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America were computed.
Brown Swiss, Guernsey, Holstein, Jersey, Red Dairy Cattle and Simmental breed data were included in this evaluation.
Based on a decision made by Interbull Steering committee in August 2007, female
fertility traits are classified as follows:
| T1 | (HC): | Maiden (H)eifer's ability to (C)onceive. A measure of confirmed conception, such as conception rate (CR), will be considered for this trait group. In the absence of confirmed conception an alternative measure, such as interval first-last insemination (FL), interval first insemination-conception (FC), number of inseminations (NI), or non-return rate (NR,preferably NR56) can be submitted; |
| T2 | (CR): | Lactating (C)ow's ability to (R)ecycle after calving. The interval calving-first insemination (CF) is an example for this ability. In the abscence of such a trait, a measure of the interval calving-conception, such as says oprn (DO) or calving interval (CI) can be submitted; |
| T3 | (C1): | LLactating (C)ow's ability to conceive (1), expressed as a rate trait. Traits like conception rate (CR) and non-return rate (NR, preferably NR56) will be considered for this trait group;a |
| T4 | (C2): | LLactating (C)ow's ability to conceive (2), expressed as an interval trait. The interval first insemination-conception (FC) or interval first-last insemination (FL) will be considered for this trait group. As an alternative, number of inseminations (NI) can be submitted. In the abscence of any of these traits, a measure of interval calving-conception such as days open (DO), or calving interval (CI) can be submitted. All countries are expected to submit data for this trait group, and as a last resort the trait submitted under T3 can be submitted for T4 as well.a |
| T5 | (IT): | LLactating cow's measurements of (I)nterval (T)raits calving-conception, such as days open (DO) and calving interval (CI). |
Based on the above trait definitions the following traits have been submitted for international genetic evaluation of female fertility traits.
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| Country | Traits | Submitted traits and their definitions |
| BEL | T2=CY | PR=Pregnancy Rate (=[21/(DO-45+11)]*100, with DO=days open) |
| T4=C2 | PR=Pregnancy Rate (=[21/(DO-45+11)]*100, with DO=days open) | |
| T5=IT | PR=Pregnancy Rate (=[21/(DO-45+11)]*100, with DO=days open) | |
| CAN | T1=HC | NR=Non Return Rate after 56 Days in heifers (NRR), % |
| T2=CY | CF=Interval from Calving to First Service in cows(CF) | |
| T3=C1 | NR=Non Return Rate after 56 Days in cows(NRR), % | |
| T4=C2 | FC=Interval first insemination-conception in cows | |
| T5=IT | DO=Days open | |
| CHE | T2=CR | CF=Interval from Calving to First Service (ICF), days |
| T3=C1 | NR=Non Return Rate after 56 Days (NRR), % | |
| T4=C2 | NR=Non Return Rate after 56 Days (NRR), % | |
| CHR | T2=CR | CF=Interval from Calving to First Service (ICF), days |
| T3=C1 | NR=Non Return Rate after 56 Days (NRR), % | |
| T4=C2 | NR=Cows' Non Return Rate after 56 Days (NRR), binary | |
| CZE | T1=HC | CR=Heifers' Conception rate (pregnant or not after 3 months) |
| T3=C1 | CR=Cows' Conception rate (pregnant or not after 3 months) | |
| T4=C2 | CR=Cows' Conception rate (pregnant or not after 3 months) | |
| AUS/DEU | T1=HC | NR=Heifers' Non Return Rate after 56 days |
| T2=CY | CF=Interval from calving to first insemination cows (days) | |
| T3=C1 | NR=Cows' Non Return Rate after 56 days | |
| T4=C2 | FL=Interval from first to last insemination cows (days) | |
| T5=IT | DO=Days open (days) | |
| DFS | T1=HC | NR=Heifers' Non Return Rate after 56 days |
| T2=CY | CF=Interval from calving to first insemination cows (days) | |
| T3=C1 | NR=Cows' Non Return Rate after 56 days | |
| T4=C2 | FL=Interval from first to last insemination cows (days) | |
| T5=IT | DO=Days open (days) | |
| ESP | T2=CY | DO=Days open |
| T4=C2 | DO=Days open | |
| T5=IT | DO=Days open | |
| FRA | T1=HC | CR=Heifers' Conception rate (binary trait) for maiden heifers |
| T3=C1 | CR=Cows' Conception rate (binary trait) for cows | |
| T4=C2 | CR=Cows' Conception rate (binary trait) for cows | |
| GBR | T2=CY | CI=days between 1st and 2nd calvings |
| T3=C1 | NR=1st lactation non return at 56 days | |
| T4=C2 | CI=days between 1st and 2nd calvings | |
| T5=IT | CI=days between 1st and 2nd calvings | |
| IRL | T2=CY | CI=Calving interval |
| T4=C2 | CI=Calving interval | |
| T5=IT | CI=Calving interval | |
| ISR | T3=C1 | CR=Inverse of the number of insemination to conception (%) |
| T4=C2 | CR=Inverse of the number of insemination to conception (%) | |
| ITA | T2=CY | CF=Days to first service |
| T3=C1 | NR=Non-return rate at 56 days (%) | |
| T4=C2 | CI=Calving Interval (days) | |
| T5=IT | CI=Calving interval (days) | |
| NLD | T2=CY | CF=Interval calving to first insemination (days) |
| T3=C1 | NR=Non-return rate 56 days (binary trait) | |
| T5=C2 | CI=Calving Interval (days) | |
| T5=IT | CI=Calving Interval (days) | |
| NOR | T1=HC | NR=NR=Non-return rate 56 days (heifers) |
| T2=CY | CF=Interval calving to first insemination (days) | |
| T3=C1 | NR=NR=Non-return rate 56 days (cows) | |
| T4=C2 | CI=Calving Interval (days) | |
| T5=IT | CI=Calving Interval (days) | |
| NZL | T2=CY | PM=Lactating cow's ability to start cycling |
| T4=C2 | PC=Lactating cow's ability to conceive (CR42) | |
| T5=IT | PC=Lactating cow's ability to conceive (CR42) | |
| POL | T1=HC | Non return rate at 56 days for heifer |
| T2=CR | Interval from calving to first insemination | |
| T3=C1 | Non return rate at 56 days for cows | |
| T4=IT | Days open | |
| T5=IT | Days open | |
| USA | T1=HC | CR=Conception rate (heifer) |
| T2=CY | DP=Daughter Pregnancy Rate | |
| T3=C1 | CR=Conception rate (cow) | |
| T4=C2 | DP=Daughter Pregnancy Rate | |
| T5=IT | DP=Daughter Pregnancy Rate | |
Changes in national procedures
| FRA: | HOL | Tested new traits: Lactating cow's ability to start cycling for Holstein |
| FRA: | RHOL+BSW | Participated in the evaluation for T1-T4 for the first time |
| CZE: | HOL | Participate with new data for female fertility. |
| Reasons (changes): | ||
| Female fertility: | ||
| New AM model (previously SM) with new or modified effects and re-estimated genetic parameters. | ||
| Separated run for each breed (HOL/SIM) | ||
| Change of requirements for cows and inseminiations to be included into evaluation. | ||
| Inseminations before 1995 are excluded (previously before 1993). | ||
| CZE: | SIM | Decided to terminate their partipation in International genetic evaluations for Simmental fertility |
| NLD: | BSW/HOL/JER/ | EDC calculations have been improved |
| RDC | Participate in the evaluation for the first time | |
| IRL: | HOL | Included more parities, introduced insemination information, a correction for heterogeneous variance and estimated new genetic parameters. |
Changes in Interbull procedures
For this routine run the pedigree source has solely been from the Interbull Pedigree
Database and no pedigree has been formed from the information in the 010-files.
Data and method of analysis
Data were national genetic evaluations of AI sampled bulls with at least 10
daughters or 10 EDC (for clinical mastitis and maternal calving traits at least
50 daughters or 50 EDC, and for direct calving traits at least 50 calvings or 50
EDC) in at least 10 herds. Table 1 presents the amount of data included in this
Interbull evaluation for all breeds.
National proofs were first de-regressed within country and then analysed jointly
with a linear model including the effects of evaluation country, genetic group
of bull and bull merit. Heritability estimates used in both the de-regression
and international evaluation were as in each country's national evaluation.
Table 2 presents the date of evaluation as supplied by each country in the
01x-proof file.
Estimated genetic parameters and sire standard deviations are shown in APPENDIX
I and the corresponding number of common bulls are listed in APPENDIX
II.
Ancestor-bulls without own proofs were traced as far back as possible from the
oldest bulls with proofs in order to increase across country connections and
account for the effect of selection.
Genetic groups were defined according to unidentified parents by national
origin, breed and birth year of the bull and path of selection (sire, maternal
grand-sire, maternal grand-dam). Minimum group size was set to 30.
Scientific literature
The international genetic evaluation procedure is based on international work described in the following scientific publications:
International genetic evaluation computation:
Schaeffer. 1994. J. Dairy Sci. 77:2671-2678
Klei, 1998. Interbull Bulletin 17:3-7
Verification and Genetic trend validation:
Klei et al., 2002. Interbull Bulletin 29:178-182.
Boichard et al., 1995. J. Dairy Sci. 78:431-437
Weighting factors:
Fikse and Banos, 2001. J. Dairy Sci. 84:1759-1767
De-regression:
Sigurdsson and G. Banos. 1995. Acta Agric. Scand. 45:207-219
Jairath et al. 1998. J. Dairy Sci. Vol. 81:550-562
Genetic parameter estimation:
Klei and Weigel, 1998, Interbull Bulletin 17:8-14
Sullivan, 1999. Interbull Bulletin 22:146-148
Post-processing of estimated genetic correlations:
Mark et al., 2003, Interbull Bulletin 30:126-135
Jorjani et al., 2003. J. Dairy Sci. 86:677-679
Genetic correlation estimation procedure
Time edits
Weigel and Banos. 1997. J. Dairy Sci. 80:3425-3430
International reliability estimation
Harris and Johnson. 1998. Interbull Bulletin 17:31-36
Publication of Interbull evaluations
Results were distributed by the Interbull Centre to
designated representatives in each country. The international evaluation file
comprised international proofs expressed on the base and unit of each country
included in the analysis. Such records readily provide more information on bull
performance in various countries, thereby minimising the need to resort to
conversions.
At the same time, all recipients of Interbull results are expected to honour the
agreed code of practice, decided by the Interbull Steering Committee, and only
publish international evaluations on their own country scale. Evaluations
expressed on another country scale are confidential and may only be used
internally for research and review purposes.
All recipients are also expected to follow the agreed guidelines for advertising
genetic merit. The guidelines has been distributed to all members and is
available on the Interbull homepage (http://www.interbull.org) under "Public
Area/Publications/Guidelines/Interbull Advertising Guidelines".
Next routine international evaluation
The next routine evaluation of Interbull for production, conformation, udder health, longevity, calving, female fertility and workability traits is scheduled for April 2012. Deadline for sending data to the Interbull Centre is Tuesday March 20, 2012, 17:00 CET; confidential distribution of results is targeted for Thursday March 29, 2012, with earliest possible official release of results on April 3, 2012.
Next test international evaluation
The next test run for production, conformation, udder health, longevity,
calving, female fertility and workability traits will take place in January 2012.
Countries planning to introduce changes in their national evaluation procedures and wishing to have them included in the routine Interbull evaluation, should
have their data examined in this test run. New data and validation results should be sent to the Interbull Centre no later than January 17, 2012, 17:00
CET.
Means of result distribution from the Interbull Centre
Electronic exchange of data is probably more efficient
than anything else. Currently most countries in the service have established
internet connections and receive international evaluation results on the day of
their release. Subscribers to the service that do not already exercise this
option are encouraged to consider it and establish an internet connection and
ftp account. When such accounts are available, please provide their
specifications to the Interbull Centre. Until then, data will be delivered on
CD-ROM's.
For more information about the international genetic evaluation service please contact the
Interbull Centre: address: SLU Box 7023, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden; fax:
+46-18-672648;
| e-mail: | Phone | ||
| Joao.Durr_at_hgen.slu.se | : | +46-18-671994 | |
| Flavio.Forabosco_at_hgen.slu.se | +46-18-671974 | ||
| Jette.Jakobsen_at_hgen.slu.se | +46-18-671955 | ||
| Eva.Hjerpe_at_hgen.slu.se | +46-18-672438 | ||
| Hossein.Jorjani_at_hgen.slu.se | +46-18-671964 | ||
| Valentina.Palucci_at_hgen.slu.se | +46-18-671987 | ||
| Anne.Loberg_at_hgen.slu.se | +46-18-671975 | ||
| Jan.Philipsson_at_hgen.slu.se | +46-18-671976 | ||
| Dan.Englund_at_hgen.slu.se | +46-18-671968 |
For all communication regarding Interbull services, please use: interbull@hgen.slu.se