InterGenomics-Holstein Letter of Agreement

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Among

the following 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

hereafter referred to as “InterGenomics-Holstein” Organisations.

If further Organisations wish to join this agreement in the future, all Organisations listed above agree that InterGenomics-Holstein has to be open for new Organisations.

Article 1 – Agreement Purpose

1. The purpose of this agreement is to establish a cooperation between Holstein Organisations towards the implementation and ongoing participation of an International Genomic Evaluation Service in the Holstein breed, referred to as “InterGenomics-Holstein”.

Article 2 – Participation in Interbull Centre services

Each party of this agreement agrees:

1. To participate in Interbull Centre services, namely MACE evaluations and the International Genomic Evaluation Service in the Holstein breed (InterGenomics-Holstein). This involves:

   1. Payment of service fees as defined in the Service Contract with the Interbull Centre;
   2. Supplying to the Interbull Centre raw genotypes and pedigree of at least all SNP-genotyped bulls,
      • at the latest before 8 months of age;
      • or, if genotyped after that age, as soon as the genotype is available;
   3. Supplying to the Interbull Centre any information needed for the validation of the system;
   4. Technical support for ongoing research and development of the Service.

Article 3 – Use of !InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations genotypes

Each party of this agreement agrees:

1. That the genotypes provided by each InterGenomics-Holstein Organisation may only be used by the Interbull Centre for the purpose of the International Genomic Evaluation Service in the Holstein breed, including parentage verification, imputation and for research purposes within the Interbull Centre.

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

Article 4 – Publication rules

Each party of this agreement agrees:

1. To allow the Interbull Centre to include in the distribution files all gEBVs of bulls with a genotype provided by the InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations;

2. To make publicly accessible (list on the Organisation’s website) the International Genomic Evaluations of all bulls according to the publication rules as defined in the Interbull Code of Practice;
3. To meet the quality standards defined for the Interbull Centre’s Services defined within the Interbull Code of Practice;

4. To advertise as “InterGenomics-Holstein” all the gEBVs computed thanks to the InterGenomics-Holstein genotype pool (defined as the pool of genotypes used by Interbull Centre in the genomic evaluation process);

5. To publish the publication standards used for the International Genomic Evaluations of all animals, both males and females;
6. To define publication standards which do not impact negatively the access to the national market.

Article 5 – !InterGenomics-Holstein Service Governance

Each party of this agreement agrees that InterGenomics-Holstein Organisations shall:

1. maintain a management committee with responsibility of overseeing the delivery of InterGenomics-Holstein Service (including future R&D activity) which will report to SC;

2. if desired, establish a technical committee with responsibility on technical developments which will report to ITC;

3. establish and maintain collaborative relationship with Organisations contributing to the InterGenomics-Holstein Service.

Article 6 – Agreement Implementation, Duration and Termination

1. This agreement shall be signed no later than 6 November 2020 and is valid from the moment it has been signed by each party.
2. Each party of this agreement has the right to terminate this agreement within a notice time of one year, but not before 31 December 2021. In case of terminations of the agreement, the genotypes 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. If one party terminates the agreement, the agreement still holds for the remaining Organisations.

Article 7 – 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 8 – 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.