Executive Summary

The Interbull Steering Committee (SC) has reviewed the current state of development of the international evaluation of genomic breeding values (GMACE) in a conference call on December 10, 2012. The main discussion points and decisions are summarized in this document.

ITC Recommendations

Most of the technical issues from the Cork meeting were addressed by the GMACE working group and the recommendations from the ITC that have been endorsed by the SC are:

The GMACE implementation tested in the September 2012 test run is considered technically sound and should be adopted in the following test run aiming for implementation in 2013.
Results from the next test run should be available to the countries as early as possible to allow a good communication with the national industries.
Progeny of genomically proven sires (without a MACE EBV) should be included in GMACE for GEBV prediction.
A working group to develop a standard genomic reliability estimation procedure should be formed in the January 2013 SC meeting.

Other GMACE-related issues

GEBV test - The Interbull Centre (ITBC) will present a report on the current status of the GEBV test among trait-populations participating in GMACE to the ITC and SC in order to establish a clear policy for participation in the GMACE runs. The trait-populations pending validation will also be communicated by the ITBC.
Distribution and publications policies - In the September 2012 GMACE test run only the national GEBVs from young bulls holding an official national publication status in at least one country were included in the GMACE breeding value prediction. This policy is under discussion and involves two aspects: distribution of GMACE results of young bulls holding unofficial national publication status is necessary to allow the national genetic evaluation centers to evaluate the quality of the results, in addition to the need of establishing a clear publication policy for GMACE results that preserves the national autonomy regarding publication criteria. The SC will define both distribution and publication policies in the next SC meeting (January 8, 2013).
Test-run policy after GMACE - After implementation of GMACE, countries testing changes in the national genetic or genomic evaluations during Interbull test runs will be required to send both the conventional EBVs from the modified model and the GEBVs from the equivalent genomic model to the ITBC. Regulating data submission for test runs is needed to guarantee synchronization between the national EBVs and national GEBVs to be included in simultaneous MACE and GMACE runs, so that both come from the same round of evaluation, with same trait definition, same genetic base and same scale. This policy has as consequence that implementing changes tested in either MACE or GMACE test runs must be made for both national conventional and genomic evaluations at the same time.
Turnaround time for official routine runs - Given that GMACE evaluations are to be performed simultaneously to MACE evaluations during routine runs, the SC is evaluating if keeping a two-week turnaround time for routine runs is still realistic, and a decision is to be made soon.
Plans for implementation – After evaluating the working days left until the January 2013 test run and the April 2013 routine run and considering the need to provide proper time for national centers to communicate about GMACE results with the breeding industry, the SC decided to implement GMACE evaluations at the August 2013 routine run.
- A new data call for the next GMACE test run will be sent to participating countries on December 13, 2012.
- Data submission deadlines:
  - January 15 (MACE test run):
    - pedigrees,
    - national EBVs for MACE,
    - Intergenomics genotypes and
    - conventional validation files
  - February 19 (GMACE test run):
    - national GEBVs for GMACE and
    - GEBV test validation files.
- GMACE test run results will be distributed in March 2013 to allow plenty of time for checking and discussion with the industry.
- Countries not sending GEBVs for GMACE will also receive results from the February 2013 GMACE test run.
- There will be no additional test run for GMACE before implementation in August 2013. Populations willing to join need to participate in February 2013.
- After GMACE is implemented for Holstein the procedure will be extended to the other breed groups according to the existing demand.

Strategic planning workshop

The Strategic planning meeting will involve the members of the SC, SAC and ICAR board and will take place in Uppsala, Monday January 7 and Tuesday January 8. Dr. Jarmo Juga, from University of Helsinki, will act as the facilitator.