Interbull Genetic Evaluation for workability traits
April 2012
Introduction
The latest test international evaluation for workability traits took place as
scheduled at the Interbull Centre. Data from six (6) countries were included in this evaluation.
International genetic evaluations for workability traits of bulls from Austria-Germany, Canada, Denmark-Finland-Sweden, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway
and Switzerland were computed. Brown Swiss, Holstein, Jersey and Red Dairy Cattle breed
data were included in this evaluation.
Changes in national procedures
Changes in the national genetic evaluation of workability traits are as
follows:
NOR | (RDC): | Temperament is evaluated by an animal model |
CHANGES COMPARED TO THE DECEMBER ROUTINE RUN WITH S-MGS PEDIGREE:
Interbull has since the beginning been using sire-MGS
relationships for International genetic evaluations of dairy bulls. It is, however, well known that International genetic evaluations are sensitive to
genetic groups. It has therefore been suggested to include bull dams in the pedigree in order to move genetic groups further away from animals with
data.
Along with the change of evaluation workflow the complete system has been streamlined and prepared for a future use of proofs and parameters
uploaded to the database. Also, the new system is not using the submitted standardization factors but does an internal standardization
based on the raw mean and standard deviations in the edited proof files.
The solver that has been in use so far has been using direct inversion. However, the dramatic increase in the size of the MME caused by
including females in the evaluation rendered the use of direct inversion for the evaluation
of Holsteins infeasible.
The solver has therefore been replaced by an iterative solver using PCG. For the current test run all analyses were performed by the streamlined
package where changes mentioned above were implemented.
Both correlation estimation and breeding value predictions are now moved from a 32-bit server to a 64-bit server and also the Fortran compilor
has changed from Absoft to Gfortran.
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
http://www.interbull.org/documents/genetic_correlation_estimation_procedure.pdf
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 August 2012. Deadline for sending data to the Interbull Centre is Tuesday July 31, 2012, 17:00 CET; confidential distribution of results is targeted
for Thursday August 9, 2012, with earliest possible official release of results on August 14, 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 September
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 September 4, 2012, 17:00
CET.
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