Interbull Routine Genetic Evaluation for Dairy Production Traits

January 2010


Introduction
The latest test international evaluation for dairy production traits took place as scheduled at the Interbull Centre. Data from twenty seven (27) countries were included in this evaluation.

International genetic evaluations for milk, fat and protein yields of bulls from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia,Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Republic of South Africa, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, 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.

Changes in national procedures

Changes in the national genetic evaluation of production traits are as
follows:

USA: BSW/GUE Change of the genetic base
   HOL/JER  
  RDC  
     
GBR: GUE/HOL An across breed evaluation and changes in EDC
  JER/RDC  
     
LTU: HOL RDC Participated with RDC and HOL. Many pedigree changes compared to the previous run.
     
ITA: BSW Introduction of:
    - new definition of genetic groups
    - new data editing procedure
    - new definition of fixed effect
     
CAN: BSW/GUE Test of new parameter estimates and some changes in the model.
  HOL/JER  
  RDC  

Changes in Interbull procedures
The same software package as used for the September 2009 test run was used for this evaluation for all traits.

Editing rules for data inclusion have been changed to inclusion 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.

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
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

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 "Publications and Documentation/General information".

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 2010. Deadline for sending data to the Interbull Centre is Tuesday March 23, 2010, 17:00 CET; confidential distribution of results is targeted for Thursday April 1, 2010, with earliest possible official release of results on April 6, 2010.

Next test international evaluation
The next test run for production, conformation, udder health, longevity, calving, female fertility and workability traits will take place in May 2010.

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 April 27, 2010, 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.Torsell_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