Interbull CoP - APPENDIX V - Guidelines for minimum requirements for publishing and accessing genetic merit of dairy animals

On December 9, 2013, the Interbull Steering Committee approved the following guidelines as minimum requirements for the accessibility and publication of evaluations resulting from services provided by Interbull. These Interbull guidelines are dedicated to the organizations responsible for the computation and for the publication of national genetic evaluations, referred to as National Genetic Evaluation Units.

GENERAL PRINCIPLE: Interbull does not publish results of the international genetic and/or genomic evaluations. Every participating organization is responsible for publishing the Interbull genetic merit estimates on its own national scale. The publication and/or circulation of Interbull evaluations on other country scales are strictly prohibited.

National Genetic Evaluation Units are encouraged to establish and enforce codes of ethics for the resulting use of genetic evaluations in their respective country. Publications containing genetic evaluations by a National Genetic Evaluation Unit or by an organization using the evaluations provided by any such Unit shall include at least the following information:

• Country and Source of evaluation (for example Interbull, ANAFI, CONAFE, CDN, VIT)
• Date of evaluation (year and month)
• Genetic base definition
• Evaluation expression: EBV, PTA or RBV
• Evaluation units (for example kg or lbs)
• Reliability
• Indication when genomic information is included

Published values of genetic merit may be national, Interbull or converted evaluations. Each National Genetic Evaluation Unit (country) is to have only one scale (evaluation expression and units) for each evaluated trait. Under no circumstances shall the original, official evaluations, both in terms of scale and units, be manipulated for publication and/or circulation. This includes examples such as the presentation of US evaluations as EBV, instead of PTA as officially used, or values normally expressed as EBV in kg shown as EBV in lbs.

Each National Genetic Evaluation Unit shall establish the rules for publication, circulation and access of genetic merit values estimated from its own national system of evaluation. By participating in and receiving evaluations resulting from Interbull services, each National Genetic Evaluation Unit is committed to make publicly accessible the genetic merits received from Interbull (i.e.: outputs from MACE, GMACE or Intergenomics) on its own scale for a given bull-trait, when:

• The bull has no published national EBV based on progeny data in the importing country, or the bull has a GEBV available from Interbull and the National Genetic Evaluation Unit does not have a genotype for direct estimation of a national GEBV, and
• The bull has an official evaluation in at least one other country for the same trait, and
• The bull is evaluated by Interbull for this trait, and
• The bull is known to have semen collected for the purpose of AI or entered an A.I. unit.

The commitment of National Genetic Evaluation Units to make all genetic merit values publicly accessible means that, minimally, all such values received from Interbull for bulls outlined above must be freely and publicly available via an individual animal query on the web site of the National Genetic Evaluation Unit or a duly designated body. The link to this web site must be indicated on the Interbull web site. While strongly encouraged in the spirit of providing complete information to dairy producers, the National Genetic Evaluation units are not required to calculate and publish values for the national selection index values (i.e.: TPI, LPI, RZG, etc.) for all bulls. For lists of top animals that are produced by the National Genetic Evaluation Unit, any restrictions applied for appearing on such lists cannot be more restrictive for foreign animals, compared to animals with a domestic evaluation, and all such listing criteria must be published in a transparent manner.

This code is focused on the publication and access of genetic evaluation information of animals, both individually or on lists. It does not preclude the presentation of results on other scales as may be appropriate and necessary for scientific papers and similar reports, which are not distributed for general consumption or for merchandising.