Interbull Routine Genetic Evaluation for Female Fertility Traits
December 2012
Introduction
The latest routine 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): | Lactating (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; |
| T4 | (C2): | Lactating (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. |
| T5 | (IT): | Lactating 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
| ZAF | GUE | Participates for the first time. |
| ZAF | RDC | We applied stricter editing specifications : A cow should have at least one parent known to be included in the evaluation. |
| USA | RDC, BSW, | The United States included days from calving to first insemination (CFI) as female fertility trait 2 (cow re-cycling) instead of daughter pregnancy rate |
| GUE, HOL | as a substitute trait. Trait CFI is estimated from daughter pregnancy rate and cow conception rate using multiple regression instead of evaluated directly | |
| JER | as a measured trait. | |
CHANGES COMPARED TO THE AUGUST ROUTINE RUN:
Introduction of the Interbull IDEA pedigree database
The Interbull Centre has changed the database platform from IBIS to IDEA,
as it was presented in Cork.
The "Restricted Area" on our website will no longer gather you access to the database. Clicking on the "Restricted Area" will provide you a
warning message and a link to the correct IDEA page, but we highly recommend to bookmark https://idea.interbull.org. The access to IDEA
will be available again through the Interbull Centre webpage when the new webpage will be ready. The previous username and password are no
longer active in IDEA. Access to IDEA is now based on individual log ins, if you wish for
co-worker(s) to also get access to the database you should send an email to Valentina or Carl (carl.wasserman@slu.se) with the
complete name and email address of your co-worker(s).
Conversion equations
The Interbull Centre was notified that Interbull conversion equations
were not applicable for some country-breed-trait combinations in which published national evaluations are not
in the same scale as the corresponding national EBVs included in MACE. As a result, it was decided
to include a code in the parameter file indicating if the country-breed-trait combination submitted to Interbull is on the nationally published scale.
The information about scale will be included in the file with conversion equations sent back to countries as e.g. "Non Applicable".
Publication of proofs of imported bulls without Interbull proof from
country of first registration.
Currently, the publication rule is that a proof of an imported bull (type of
proof 21) only gets published if his first country proof (type of proof 11 or type of proof 12) is included in the
evaluation for the specific sub-trait. Not all countries do participate in the complete service portfolio, and
therefore, if the country of first proof of a bull is not included in MACE
evaluations the importing country of this bull do not get an Interbull proof back even if national daughter based proof is submitted to Interbull. The reason
of including this rule in the past was to account for selection. The imported bulls are included in MACE if they have at least 150 daughters (or 150
EDC) in 50 herds (HOL), 30 daughters (or 30 EDC) in 10 herds (GUE), or 80 daughters
(or 80 EDC) in 20 herds (other breeds), but not published if first country of proof is missing. The issue was presented and discussed during the
Interbull Meetings in Cork, 2012, and it was decided to relax the business rule on the
requirement of first country proof. The distribution files will therefore include these bulls.
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.
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
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 2013. Deadline for sending data to the Interbull Centre is Tuesday March 19, 2013, 17:00 CET; confidential distribution of results is targeted
for Thursday April 4, 2013, with earliest possible official release of results on April 9, 2013. Please remark the three weeks turn around due to Easter.
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 2013.
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 15, 2013, 17:00
CET.
PUBLICATION OF INTERBULL ROUTINE RUN
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".