Interbull Routine Genetic Evaluation for Udder Health Traits
August 2012
Introduction
The latest routine international evaluation for udder traits took place
as scheduled at the Interbull Centre. Data from twentysix (26) 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, the United States of America, Poland,
Lithuania, Latvia and Portugal 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:
| DNK | (HOL,RDC,JER) | Some decrease in information. For udder health we are looking at herds which are actively participating in disease recording which may cause small changes. |
| JPN | (HOL) | Due to the correction of some cow's pedigree, the number of daughters, herds, and EDC decreased in some bulls. |
| CHE | (BSW) | Some bulls lost single herds and/or daughters and/or edc compared to the last routine run, which is due to recoding of single animals (parentage). |
| LTU | (HOL,RDC) | Eliminated some records with wrong calving years and several cows with wrong one lactation test day records count. |
| ESP | (HOL) | Some bulls had lost their proof because an update on their international pedigre code. |
| NLD | (ALL): | National pedigree information on bulls was extended by adding more generations (3rd, and 4th) |
INTERBULL CHANGES COMPARED TO THE APRIL ROUTINE RUN
No changes in Interbull procedures
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 November 2012. Deadline for sending data to the Interbull Centre is Tuesday November 20, 2012, 17:00 CET; confidential distribution of results
is targeted for Thursday November 29, 2012, with earliest possible official release of results
on December 4, 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.
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".