Download document as pdf

Executive Summary January- February 2018

January - February 2018

From 10-13 February 2018 the Interbull Meeting was held in Auckland, New Zealand in conjunction with the 41^st ICAR biannual meeting and the 11^th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production (WCGALP). This document contains a summary of the relevant information and decisions of this Meeting, as well as of other meetings that were held during January and February 2018.

2018 Interbull Meeting in Auckland, New Zealand

The Interbull Technical Committee, Steering Committee and Scientific Advisory Committee met during the Interbull meeting. Five Open Meeting and two Business Meetings were held on 10 and 11 February, while on 12 and 13 February five joint Interbull-WCGALP scientific sessions were organised:

Interbull Open sessions

Joint Interbull-WCGALP sessions

1. Availability and use of genetic and genomic information in dairy and beef herd management.
2. R&D in (inter)national evaluations: Calving traits and fertility in dairy and beef cattle
3. R&D in (inter)national evaluations: Implementation of new traits in dairy and beef cattle.
4. Free Communication
5. Addressing the challenges of genomic selection in international genetic and genomic evaluations in dairy and beef cattle.

‘Methods and Tools’ for:
1. Models and Computing Strategies
2. Software
3. GWAS
4. Prediction (2 sessions)

Interbull Chair Reinhard Reents welcomed more than 120 participants from 34 countries to the Interbull Business Meetings. A record 400 people attended the Interbull Open session ‘Addressing the challenges of genomic selection in international genetic and genomic evaluations in dairy and beef cattle‘ and the other open and joint sessions were also well attended with audiences of 100-300. Interbull activities were presented by Reinhard Reents, Toine Roozen, Hossein Jorjani, Valentina Palucci, Joanna Sendecka, Enrico Santus and Brian Van Doormaal, Gert Pedersen Aamand and Andrew Cromie, covering Interbull Centre’s organisational structure, personnel, finance, service and operations, and its role as the EU Reference Centre, as well as Interbull and ICAR governance and R&D activities, including SNPMace, ICAR Accreditation of DNA Data Interpretation Centres, GenoEx-PSE and Interbeef. Reports are available at www.interbull.org/ib/itbcreports, while presentations are available online for the Business Meeting (www.interbull.org/ib/bm_auckland_2018) and the Open Meeting and joint sessions (www.interbull.org/ib/presentation_auckland_2018). Photos of these Meetings are available on: http://interbull30years.blogspot.se/2018/02/interbull-meetings-auckland-nzl-2018.html.

Development of New Services

Mendelian Sampling Test: Those countries validating their evaluations in 2018 will also need to provide Mendelian Sampling (MS) test results, by the end of March 2018. The results will be reviewed and discussed during the Technical Workshop in August 2018.

ICAR Accreditation of DNA Data Interpretation Centres: The first DNA Data Interpretation Centres have been ICAR accredited for SNP Parentage Verification. Further information is available from the ICAR website:www.icar.org/index.php/certifications/certification-and-accreditation-of-dna-genetic-laboratories/two-new-dna-based-services/dna-data-interpretation-centres.

GenoEx-PSE: GenoEx-PSE will be launched before 1 June 2018. Organisation interested in joining the service are required to be an ICAR Accredited DNA Data Interpretation Centre

InterGenomics-Holstein (Ig-Hol): A data call for the second Ig-HOL research run will be issued in March 2018. Ig-HOL will be discussed in the Technical Workshop in August 2018. If you are interested in joining Ig-HOL, please contact the Interbull Centre.

SNPMace: During the 2018 Business meeting, the SNPMace feasibility project was further explained to the audience, and the SNPMace Workging Group (existing of Enrico Santus (Chair), Toine Roozen (Secretary), Mike Goddard, Vincent Ducrocq, Esa Mäntysaari, Zengting Liu and Hossein Jorjani) was also introduced. The feasibility project - funded by Interbull, and making use of Brown Swiss data (as a case study) - will also be discussed during the 2018 Technical Workshop.

Interbull Governance

Steering Committee membership

Sophie Mattalia (Interbull SC member since 2006) was endorsed by the Interbull Business Meeting on 11 February 2018 for another 4-year term as Interbull SC member, representing France and Wallonia.

Interbull Meetings in 2018:

Joint Interbull-ADSA Symposium 27 June 2018 (Knoxville, Tennessee, USA)
As part of the 2018 ADSA annual meeting (24-27 June 2018), and Interbull are jointly organising a Symposium on “Phenotyping and genetics in the New Era of sensor data from automation”. This symposium is designed for scientists and students with an interest in genetic/genomic evaluations and breeding programs, and making use of new data collected automatically on individual animals and their environment. Further details on www.adsa.org/2018/program and www.interbull.org/ib/2018_joint_interbull_adsa_symp.
2018 Interbull Technical Workshop in Dubrovnik, Croatia: 25 and 26 August 2018
The 2018 Interbull Technical Workshop in Dubrovnik will focus on the development of Interbull Services, including “SNPMace”, “Mendelian Sampling Test” and “InterGenomics-Holstein”; (www.interbull.org/ib/2018_technical_workshop).
Joint Interbull-EAAP session at the EAAP meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia: 27-31 August 2018
EAAP and Interbull will once again organise joint sessions on the first day of EAAP:
1. Cow genotyping for genomic selection, management and marketing in cattle
2. Optimization of a genomic breeding program for small-sized cattle populations

Deadline for abstract submission: 1 March 2018. More info on www.eaap2018.org and www.interbull.org/ib/2018_eaap.

Interbull Annual Meetings

2019, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA (with ADSA): 22-24 June 2019
2020, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands (with ICAR): Interbull Meeting dates tbc
2021, Davos, Switzerland (with EAAP): 28-30 August 2021