InterGenomics-Holstein Letter of Agreement

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Between

the Contributing Organisations, defined as an organisation willing to contribute genotypes of proven Holstein sires with MACE proof for production traits (referred to as “reference genotypes”) to the InterGenomics-Holstein reference population, each referred to as “Contributor”

and the following InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations:

• Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) – Ireland
• Israel Cattle Breeders Association (ICBA) – Israel
• Slovenian Holstein Association (HOL-SLO) – Slovenia
• National Institute of Animal Science (NIAS) - South Korea

Article 1 – Agreement Purpose

1. The purpose of this agreement is to establish a collaboration between the InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations and the Contributor willing to contribute genotypes of proven Holstein sires with MACE proof for production traits (referred to as “reference genotypes”) to the InterGenomics-Holstein reference population.

Article 2 – Provision of genotypes

Each party of this agreement agrees:

1. that the Contributor and the InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations will provide only genotypes for which they have the rights to use for (international) genomic evaluations;

2. that the Contributor will provide reference genotypes for the improvement/increase of the InterGenomics-Holstein reference population;

3. that the Contributor will provide a minimum number of 50 reference genotypes for the access to the InterGenomics-Holstein Countries’ markets;

4. that the Contributor may furthermore provide a defined number of genotypes for young sires in AI, proportional to the number of provided reference genotypes, as defined in the Appendix I of the present agreement;
5. that the Contributor may provide only genotypes for young sires in AI that it owns or controls;

6. that the genotyped animals submitted by the Contributor and the InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations must have pedigree information in IDEA database.

Article 3 – gEBVs prediction for Contributors’ bulls

Each party of this agreement agrees:

1. that sires with genotypes contributed by the Contributor will receive gEBVs on all InterGenomics-Holstein countries scales for all traits that have been evaluated through MACE for each specific InterGenomics-Holstein country;;

2. that sires with genotypes contributed by the Contributor will not receive gEBVs on the Contributor’s scale.

Article 4 – Access to !InterGenomics-Holstein results

Each party of this agreement agrees:

1. that all InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations will receive:

   1. SNP equations only in its own country scale;

   2. gEBVs for animals with a genotype provided by the InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations in all InterGenomics-Holstein countries scales;

   3. gEBVs for reference sires with a genotype provided by the Contributor in all InterGenomics-Holstein countries scales;

   4. gEBVs for young sires in AI with a genotype provided by the Contributor (regardless of the publication status defined by the Contributor) in all InterGenomics-Holstein country scales for all the traits evaluated in MACE by each specific InterGenomics-Holstein country;

   5. the list of all genotyped reference sires’ ids, regardless the origin of the genotypes;
   6. a report with parentage conflicts including all the genotyped animals submitted by that country;
   7. the report with duplicated genotypes, regardless the origin of the genotypes;

   8. the list of young sires in A.I. ids the Contributor has identified to be published in each InterGenomics-Holstein country.

2. that the Contributor will receive:

   1. gEBVs of all its genotyped sires on all InterGenomics-Holstein countries scales;

   2. the list of all genotyped reference sires’ ids, regardless the origin of the genotypes;
   3. a report with parentage conflicts including all the genotyped animals submitted by that country;
   4. the report with duplicated genotypes, regardless the origin of the genotypes;
3. that the Contributor will not have access to SNP equations.

4. that the previous conditions (Article 4 - a, b and c) are applicable for both test and routine runs of the InterGenomics-Holstein Service.

Article 5 – Exchange of InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations’ national TMI

Each party of this agreement agrees:

1. that each InterGenomics-Holstein Organisation will compute national TMI for all genotyped young bulls evaluated in the InterGenomics-Holstein Service, using the same methods and evaluation values that would be used if such national TMI results were officially published in the Organization’s country, as outlined in Article 6 within the publication obligations of the InterGenomics-Holstein Organisation;

2. that each InterGenomics-Holstein Organisation will send national TMI of all the genotyped young bulls evaluated in the InterGenomics-Holstein Service to Interbull Centre, within two weeks after the Official release of the results of the InterGenomics-Holstein routine run;

3. that Interbull Centre will provide to each Contributor the list of its own genotyped young bulls in AI evaluated in the InterGenomics-Holstein Service with TMI computed by all the InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations, within three weeks after the Official release of the results of the InterGenomics-Holstein routine run;

4. that each Contributor will use the TMI received from Interbull Centre for internal management activities, aimed at identifying the genotyped young bulls in AI to be published in each InterGenomics-Holstein Country.

Article 6 – Publication rules

Each party of this agreement agrees:

1. that the number of yearly Contributor’s publishable gEBVs of genotyped young sires in AI depends on the number of reference genotypes provided by the Contributor and on the number of yearly national progeny proven sires in each InterGenomics-Holstein Country, according to the rules reported in the Appendix I of the present agreement;

2. that the Contributor will identify prior to the start of each routine evaluation from among its submitted genotyped young sires in AI those which have to be published and in which InterGenomics-Holstein Country. For the avoidance of doubt: those young sires in AI to be published in each InterGenomics-Holstein Country may vary between the InterGenomics-Holstein Countries;

3. that all the InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations will have access to the list of IDs of young sires in AI for which the Contributor has requested the publication in the specific InterGenomics-Holstein Country;

4. that only the InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations of the countries in which the Contributor has requested the publication of the genotyped young sire in AI, will be obliged to publish the gEBVs (those obtained from InterGenomics-Holstein Service or any other breeding value/selection index computed using gEBVs from InterGenomics-Holstein Service) of the identified animals;

5. that the genotype of a young sire in AI identified as publishable by the Contributor will be used as reference genotype once the sire will receive a MACE proof;

6. that InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations must make publicly accessible (list on the Organisation’s website) the gEBVs of publishable Contributor’s genotyped young sires in AI;

7. that InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations must advertise as “InterGenomics-Holstein” all the gEBVs computed thanks to the InterGenomics-Holstein Service.

8. that InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations must share with the Contributors documentation describing the use at national level of the gEBVs computed thanks to the InterGenomics-Holstein Service. The documentation’s details are defined in the Appendix II of the present agreement.

9. that InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations may decide to publish the gEBVs of Contributor’s genotyped young sires in AI in a specific list, different from the one for the national genotyped young sires in AI.

10. that InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations can not publish the gEBVs of Contributor’s genotyped young bulls in AI not identified as publishable by the Contributor in their specific Country.

Article 7 – Use of Contributor’s genotypes

• Each party of this agreement agrees:

  1. That the genotypes provided by the Contributor may only be used by the Interbull Centre for the purpose of the InterGenomics-Holstein Service, including parentage verification, imputation and for research & development related to InterGenomics-Holstein within the Interbull Centre.

  2. That the genotypes provided by the Contributor must not be distributed to the InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations or to any other third party Organisation.

  3. That Contributors will have access to results of investigations performed by Interbull Centre or InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations on data or results from InterGenomics-Holstein Service. Contributors will also be informed in advanced of any public presentation about the InterGenomics-Holstein Service or their submitted data.

Article 8 – Agreement Implementation, Duration and Termination

1. This agreement shall be signed no later than 16 November 2021 and is valid from the moment it has been signed by each party.
2. During the start-up phase, from November 2020 until April 2022, parties have an obligation to implement the following steps:
   1. All parties shall submit their reference genotypes by the required deadline of 10 November 2020;
   2. Contributors shall inform Interbull Centre of the Young Bulls to be published in each country by 15 March 2022;

   3. InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations shall implement Article 6h no later than 31 January 2021, and Articles 6f and 6g no later than 6 April 2021;

3. Each party of this agreement has the right to terminate this agreement within a notice time of one year, but not before 31 December 2022. In case of terminations of the agreement, the genotypes of reference sires already provided to the Interbull Centre within the scope of this agreement must remain in the Interbull database and may be used according the rules of this agreement. Young sires’ or females’ genotypes already provided to the Interbull Centre will be removed from the Interbull database if requested by the party terminating the agreement. If one party terminates the agreement, the agreement still holds for the remaining Organisations.

Article 9 – Execution

1. This Agreement may be executed via facsimile or electronically in .pdf format and in counterpart copies, each of which shall be deemed to be an original but all of which together constitute one and the same agreement.

Article 10 – Acceptance and Signature

1. The undersigned acknowledge and accept the terms and conditions of this Agreement and are legally authorized to sign on behalf of the respective Party.

Appendix I: Number of yearly allowable and publishable Contributor’s Genomic Young Bulls in AI.

The number of yearly young sires in AI genotypes the Contributor can submit and the number of publishable genotyped young sires in AI gEBVs depends on the number of reference genotypes provided by the Contributor and on the number of yearly progeny proven sire in InterGenomics-Holstein Organisation’s country.

(*) InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations Group A: <60 progeny proven bulls per year#:

• Slovenia

($) InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations Group B: >=60 progeny proven bulls per year#:

• Ireland
• Israel
• South Korea

# = average by year of the number of progeny proven bulls in the last 5 years based on MACE input data.

Appendix II: Use by !InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations at national level of the gEBVs computed thanks to the !InterGenomics-Holstein Service.

Each InterGenomics-Holstein Organisation should specify:

• To which third party (Organisations or Companies) the InterGenomics-Holstein gEBVs are delivered;

• The use in the total merit index (or other selection indexes) of InterGenomics-Holstein gEBVs;

• Criteria for official publication of InterGenomics-Holstein gEBVs;

• Where the InterGenomics-Holstein gEBVs are published;

• Where any non-official InterGenomics-Holstein gEBVs might be made publicly available and for whom;

• Which are the procedures in place to get semen imported in the InterGenomics-Holstein Organisation’s Country.