Interbull Routine Genetic Evaluation for Direct Longevity

August 2008

Introduction
International genetic evaluations for direct longevity of bulls from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, The United Kingdom, Ireland, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Sweden, The United States of America and Hungary were computed in this evaluation for Red Dairy Cattle, Brown Swiss, Guernsey, Jersey, Holstein and the Simmental breed.

Changes in national data:

• NZL - HOL, JER. Developed a new program to produce Interbull files. Crossbred animals having the same number of 16ths for two breeds were assigned to the breed of their sire.
• USA - RDC. Submitted evaluations for Milking Shorthorn bulls.
• ITA - First routine run for BSW
• FRA - First routine run for BSW

Changes in international evaluations compared to:

• none

Data and method of analysis of sire variances were implemented

Data were national genetic evaluations of AI sampled bulls with daughters in at least 10 herds. Table 1 presents the amount of data included in this Interbull evaluation.

Table 2 presents the date of evaluation as supplied by each country in the 017-proof file.

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. Different breeds were analysed separately. Heritability estimates used in both the de-regression and international evaluation were as in each country's national evaluation (Table 3).

Estimated genetic parameters are shown in APPENDIX I and the corresponding number of common bulls are listed in APPENDIX II. Parameters are listed by breed, trait and country.

Ancestor-bulls without own proofs were traced back two generations 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.

Publication of Interbull evaluations

Test evaluation results are meant for review purposes only and should not be published.

Next routine international evaluation

The next routine international evaluation for dairy production, udder health conformation, longevity,calving traits (BSW, Holstein, RDC) and female fertility is  scheduled for January 2009. New data for the January routine run should reach the Interbull Centre not later than Tuesday December 9, 2008, 17:00 Central European Time (CET); in any case, the most recently received data will be considered. The target time for distribution of results for internal review to designated representatives, who have signed a confidentiality agreement with the Centre, is Thursday January 8, 2008. Official release date of the results is targeted to be Tuesday January 13, 2009.

Next test international evaluation

The next test international evaluation for dairy production, conformation, udder health, longevity and calving traits (Red dairy cattle breeds, Brown Swiss, Holstein) and female fertility traits is scheduled for September 2008. Countries wishing to enter the system for the first time or planning to submit new information (modified national evaluation procedure,new breeds etc) for following routine evaluations must have their data tested in this test-run.

Deadline for sending data and validation results to the Interbull Centre for the September 2008 test run is September 9, 2008 at 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 has 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;

Please use Interbull_at_hgen.slu.se for all communication regarding Interbull services.