Interbull Routine Genetic Evaluation for Udder Health Traits
August 2011
Introduction
The latest test international evaluation for udder traits took place
as scheduled at the Interbull Centre. Data from twentytwo (22) countries were
included in this evaluation.
International genetic evaluations for udder health traits of bulls from
Australia, Austria-Germany, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic,
Denmark-Finland-Sweden, Estonia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Slovak Republic, Spain,
Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America were computed.
Brown Swiss, Holstein, Red Dairy Cattle, Guernsey, Jersey and Simmental breed
data were included in this evaluation.
Changes in national procedures
Changes in the national genetic evaluation of
udder health traits are as follows:
| ISR | (HOL) | Based on the results of the 54K Beadchip,
we were able to verify paternity for 670 bulls in the Israeli Holstein
population. Paternity of bull as listed in the Herdbook was rejected for 24
bulls, based on the criterion of >4.5% discrepancies between the genotype of
the bulls and the recorded father. We were able to determine the correct father for 17 of these bulls, based on the follow criteria: 1. For all of these 17 bulls the frequency of discrepancies between the bulls and the "replacement" father was > 0.02%. 2.The replacement father was used as a service sire nine months before the birth of the putative son. We therefore corrected the paternity of these 17 bulls in the Israeli Herdbook. |
| ITA | (HOL,JER) | updating some pedigree and ids information. |
| BEL | (HOL) | Herd identification was further improved. Herds keep their identity even if owner changes. This leads to a slight decrease in the number of herds for some bulls. |
| DEU | (HOL,RDC,JER) | Included also the breeding values of bulls being born before 1986 (HOL)and 1981 (other breeds). |
| JPN | (HOL) | Adjusted the iteration method in order to accelerate calculation time. As a result, convergence became better than the last run.We have two convergence criterions that are 3200 rounds and 1.0E-11. A former was selected from alternative criterions in the last run, and a latter was selected in this run |
| AUS | (ALL) | base change |
| IRL | (HOL) | We made some slight changes to the extraction which resulted in a larger number of bulls having a slight decrease in herds and daughters than normal. |
| ESP | (HOL) | some pedigree updates |
| PRT | (HOL) | Corrected type of proofs and bulls status, corrected also number of herds for some bulls, it is a very minor change, 1 herd, for a small number of bulls. |
Changes in Interbull procedures
No changes in Interbull proceduresh
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 "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 December 2011. Deadline for sending data to
the Interbull Centre is Tuesday November 22, 2011, 17:00 CET; confidential
distribution of results is targeted for Thursday December 1, 2011, with earliest
possible official release of results on December 6, 2011.
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 2011.
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 6, 2011, 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;
| 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